Tuning In, Working Through, and Getting Out, by Garrett McCoy

The human brain, just like television, consists of a constant flow of information and sensations, both of which never truly reach an end. Certainly, programs on television may end and emotional problems in the brain may be assuaged, but more information will always continue to pour into and through both the TV and the brain.

Knowing this, it is impractical to realistically expect a "final catharsis", that is, complete and total peace of mind, from watching television. What should be desired, instead, is revelation and progress through the process of watching and interpreting television. To put it simply, concrete segments of television are not capable of truly defining the individuals who watch it, just as one segment of television cannot define television as a whole. Rather, immersion in the flow of television, specifically in heavily psychoanalytic shows such as Neon Genesis Evangelion and In Treatment, can act as a mirror for the viewer's ego and provide a unique reflection of the viewer's identity. Even Lebron James' Nike commercial titled Rise asks more questions about the viewer than the subject himself. Additionally, since these introspective shows are designed in such a way so as to rely on their viewers to interpret them, it can also be said that the shows (and television as a whole) are reciprocatingly defined by the pensive viewers themselves.

While these three texts of television seem to be quite different (and they are), let us isolate each one and explain their significance before establishing the commonalities shared among them. The 26th episode of Evangelion is the final episode of the science fiction anime series. The final two episodes radically depart from the narrative and instead depict a psychoanalytic session regarding the main characters of the show. This therapeutic culmination of Evangelion serves as a means of interpreting the characters, the show, and ourselves through its experimental method of delivery. In the following clip, taken from halfway through Episode 26, Shinji Ikari, the show's protagonist, plays the role of the patient as he comes to terms with his own existence.



In the first third of this episode, Shinji's psychological manifestations of the show's other characters acts as interrogators as Shinji works through his issues. The format follows closely the work of Freud, whose essay “Remembering, Repeating, and Working Through” explains the process of a psychoanalyst asking questions and allowing a patient to come to their own revelation about that which was bothering them, consciously or otherwise. The questions in Evangelion are meant to “overcome the resistance within [the patient]” (Freud 33), and as they break down Shinji's psychological barriers, he arrives at the clip's first and most important quotation: “What am I?”.

At this point, of course, the viewer has seen Shinji, in Freud's terms, “overcome his hostility towards his free associations” (Freud 33) and address the most fundamental and basic of all questions, that of his existence. Of course, when he asks “What am I?”, the viewer is forced to see him as an unknown person with whom the viewer cannot fully understand. After all, if the character is struggling with their own identity, then the audience must struggle with it as well. Episode 26 makes the viewer realize that after 25 episodes, they do not know Shinji as well as they thought. Because of this, the process of defining Shinji's existence occurs for the benefit of both Shinji and the viewer.

In this clip of Evangelion, visual and audial continuity are abandoned as what is seen and heard follows Shinji's stream of consciousness rather than any concrete narrative. A cohesive flow of words comes from the disembodied mouths of many characters and the scene rapidly shifts between imaginary domains to tangible ones. This creates a sense of anonymity among the speakers and a feeling of universality regarding the questions. The viewer doesn't know who or where the questions originate from, so they could be said by anyone and could apply to anyone, both within the show and without. The entire episode, therefore, becomes therapeutic not just for Shinji, but for the viewer as well. Just as the people enabling him to “work through” his problems are simply images and exist insofar that his mind perceives them, the images of television are simply images on a screen, yet they enable us to”work through” out own psychological issues. Moreover, both this clip and television in general are revealed to share the same nature: a flux of images, sounds, and speakers, all of which are simultaneously cohesive and segmented.

But just what is this process of “working through”, and what is its role in television? Most shows are not as stylistically radical as Evangelion, yet some similarly strive to be therapeutic both for their characters and for their viewers. One such show is In Treatment, a serialized show focusing on the week-to-week psychiatric sessions of its various characters.

One patient in particular, named Sophie, deals with the issues of her parents' break-up and feels responsible for it as she and Dr. Weston meet weekly. Eventually Sophie's relationship with her father is isolated as her most significant psychological problem, and in the final episode her father unexpectedly joins her for a session with Dr. Weston. In this final episode of Sophie's sessions (but not the final episode of the season), by confronting her father directly Sophie is able to come to terms with her sense of self and sense of responsibility regarding his actions.

Sophie's dad, who the audience has not encountered before this episode, begs Sophie to let him stay with her after she breaks down. But Sophie tells him to get out. By rejecting her father she is able to reject her dependence on his image and fully embrace her own identity, saying, “This is my therapy. Mine.” Indeed, it is Sophie whom we have seen each week with Dr. Weston, and this new figure of her father almost seems like in intruder into both Sophie's time with Dr. Weston and Sophie's time with us, the viewers. Sophie has achieved a catharsis, and the viewer, having also heard the questions brought up by Dr. Weston, has undoubtedly undergone some psychological development as well.

Two authors of television studies, David Foster Wallace and John Ellis, aptly put into words the reasons behind the sense of catharsis we feel when the characters (such as Sophie or Shinji) overcome their issues. Wallace, in his essay “E Unibus Pluram: Television and US Fiction”, discusses (among other things) the “metawatching” of television. He believes someone who continually watches programs and absorbs their information changes and “becomes spectatorial, self conscious” (Wallace 160). In the case of In Treatment, the viewer finds themselves becoming a part of the show, and their weekly meetings with their television parallels Sophie's meetings with Dr. Weston. “We spend enough time watching, pretty soon we start watching ourselves watching. We start to 'feel' ourselves feeling, yearn to experience 'experiences'” (Wallace 160). We want Sophie to figure out her problems both for her sake and for ours, since through Sophie we vicariously address the same questions she faces.

Ellis details this process of “working through” our own issues in his essay “Working Through: The Age of Uncertainty”, with television acting as both psychoanalyst and witness to our “therapy”. The characters of any text, by achieving their catharsis, demonstrate the possibility of the viewer reaching their own state of relief. While the television obviously cannot “as it used to in the era of scarcity, provide any overall explanation” (Ellis 79), it can act as a catalyst for our psychological introspection, enabled largely by the viewer's immersion in what Wallace calls the “metafiction” of the show.

Nothing encapsulates the themes addressed by Evangelion and In Treatment as appropriately as Lebron James' Rise commercial.



The questions Lebron poses are many. But his questions, while seeming to address both everyone and no one in particular, cannot be answered. The viewer is not going to speak with Lebron about these issues, and Lebron cannot be expecting any actual answers. Knowing this, Lebron, despite his role as the subject, the patient, the one with the problem, seems to be the psychoanalyst. The viewer, in turn, is also the patient in the sense that these questions are meant to make us think about ourselves rather than about Lebron. After all, Lebron is going to ultimately do whatever he wants, regardless of what answers the viewer might come up with.

Beverle Houston's essay titled “Viewing Television” references the way in which television acts as a mirror and relies on “the repetitive reformulation of desire” (Houston 185). Lebron doesn't want to know the answer to these questions. Lebron wants us to want to know the answers to these questions and, ultimately, to connect with Lebron and see ourselves in his position. Houston's metaphor of TV as a mirror fits this idea nicely as the clip's final line, “Should I be who you want me to be?”. With this line, we realize the commercial is not about Lebron so much as it is about us, the viewer.

Having discerned what television tells us about its characters and its viewers, what does all of this, with regards to the psychoanalytic process, tell us about television as a whole? With a more significant understanding of these three programs, who we are as viewers, and who we are as ourselves, we can step back and recognize television as less of an object and more of a dynamic process, or a phenomenon. Most viewers can relate to these issues of self-identity, relationships with their parents, and relationships with those in society. The problems brought up by these three texts are relatively universal and not unique to the characters in each show. In this way, the texts, while challenging their subjects to think about the questions presented, challenge the viewers to interpret their own lives as well. In these specific cases, all individuals, fictional or otherwise, benefit from the therapeutic nature of television. More than just a “television set”, television is an entity which acts as a catalyst for our emotions, our thoughts, and our experiences, all of which are brought to light as the programming of television serves as a conduit for our own psyche to “work through” itself.