Thoughts on House's Therapy, Let Me Show You Them

[deelaundry]

I said as a comment on a post about House: "Let's have him go through therapy but leave off-screen him discussing anything that actually matters with his therapist" and was challenged to share what I thought was missing from the therapy sessions.

Thinking it through made for an interesting list. I wondered if anyone had anything else they would've liked to see... or if I missed something during "Broken" and some of these were covered.

As to the meetings with the therapist, a few of the issues House has that weren't discussed include:
- his father's treatment of him
- how he feels about his mother's upbringing of him, given that he hates what his father has done
- exploration of why he thinks unconditional love doesn't exist; how this affects his life
- how he feels about being a unique intellect; his search for someone like him
- how he feels about Kutner's death
- how he feels about Amber's death
- exploration of why it was Amber he was hallucinating
- in-depth discussion of his friendship with Wilson; "Wilson is not a consolation prize" is an interesting statement that could use more follow-up
- how he feels about his patients. We've been told throughout canon he sees them as puzzles; some fans hypothesize that he stays away from patients because he always cares too much -- is it either of those? Something in-between?

I also would've liked to see a more definitive discussion of his actual pain levels and a comprehensive, well thought-out pain management plan. It's strange for someone to go from methodone for their chronic pain (remember Cuddy was OK with him taking it, then he decided not to) to ibuprofen. Was that much of the pain really caused by over-dependence on Vicodin?

Comments

[hibernia1.livejournal.com]

I also would've liked to see a more definitive discussion of his actual pain levels and a comprehensive, well thought-out pain management plan. YES YES YES TO THE POWER OF A THOUSAND.

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

Word.

[hibernia1.livejournal.com]

*HUGS*

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

It would make sense to do.

[hibernia1.livejournal.com]

I KNOW!!! Have been yelling about this for years!!

[taiga13.livejournal.com]

THe way they show House's pain on this show... the physical pain is hopelessly confused with emotional pain and drug addiction, and I get that it's SUPPOSED to be, but as you say it's baffling that they'd go from House taking methadone to managing his pain with ibuprofen. To me the thing was that physically he seemed FINE on the ibuprofen, suggesting that he doesn't need stronger meds at all and never did. Meaning Wilson and Cuddy etc were wildly irresponsible for letting him abuse Vicodin for so long!

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

And talk therapy is supposed to help you sort out things that are hopelessly confused. It seems that it did that for House on the subject of medication, given that he was allowed to leave Mayfield and go on his merry way, but we as viewers weren't shown that.

Which I perceive as an ongoing pattern by the producers to eat their cake and have it too. YMMV.

[taiga13.livejournal.com]

Plus Nolan didn't seem to see Wilson and Cuddy as enablers.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

He didn't, did he? And Wilson knows he's an enabler for House (admitted it in canon more than once) but apparently Nolan thought it'd be safe to have the two of them living together, having Wilson watch out for House.

One thing I don't remember: After the Tritter debacle, who was prescribing for House? Was it Wilson again? Or did the show not tell us?

[taiga13.livejournal.com]

They never came out and said, but it seemed to be Wilson. He was always the one House turned to for that bladder medication, sleeping pills, so on.
Whoops, forgot to add that Nolan was clearly aware that Wilson was House's only friend, his only support - maybe that outweighed the enabling in Nolan's mind? But they never said so we'll never know.

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

Given that I could be totally misremembering, I thought it was Cuddy keeping House on a tight leash after the Tritter affair. A while after that, I do think they showed that Taub was doing the prescribing (he picked up a bag at the hospital pharmacy and had a conversation with ... Chase, I think), and then way after that, it was Wilson writing the scrips again (per the conversation about multiple forgeries and "we could both go to jail").

But like I said, my memory is definitely not what it used to be. *g*

[felis-nocturna.livejournal.com]

Nope, Cuddy was keeping House on a tight leash during the Tritter affair and Wilson was prescribing for him at least since - but probably earlier than - "Top Secret" (3x16), where he explicitly confirms writing him a prescription for Vicodin. I don't remember the Taub thing, but I know that Kutner was shown to get drugs for House in season 5.

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

Ah, thank you!

I knew someone out there would remember this much more clearly than me. :-D

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

Yes to everything you wrote. And I think the points "search for someone like him" and "friendship with Wilson" have a very nontrivial overlap.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

"Unconditional love" fits in there too.

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

Definitely.

[pgrabia.livejournal.com]

God forbid TPTB should go there. It might make the writing more consistent.

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

I would have liked to have seen some exploration of House's feelings about his parents and how those have shaped his emotional connections to other people. Here's a guy who proves, at age twelve or thirteen, that his father is not his real father, which basically means that his mother has been lying to him all his life. It's a Grimm fairy tale and a Greek tragedy all rolled up into one buzzing hornets' nest.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. There's a lot to be untangled in House's relationship with his father and mother. And how does House feel about not beign able to lie to his mother ("She's a human lie-detector") when his mother, in one sense, lied to him.

On the other hand, would she perceive it as lying? Or as just not mentioning something that's irrelevant to her son's life? Even though John isn't Greg's biological father, he is the one who is raising Greg with her. That would probably, in her mind, make him Greg's real father.

[taiga13.livejournal.com]

I've always wanted to see more exploration of House's relationship with his mother.
My fantasy storyline would be House's mother getting cancer and House asking Wilson to treat her. How would House handle the role reversal of caring for his mother? Would he be able to relinquish his need for control to do what's best for her (ex. having the chemo or radiation treatments in her local hospital so she could live at home instead of at PPTH)? House has always been the doctor whose involvement ends with him saying "start the treatment", but with cancer that's the beginning of the story and not the end - how would he handle not only being the family of the patient, but dealing with what happens after the diagnosis is made? With cancer the care doesn't come from being a genius diagnostician or even a medical expert but from experience and from expertise with dealing with patients, which Wilson has and House doesn't - how would he feel about Wilson being the expert? How would Wilson balance being House's friend vs putting his patient's needs first?

[knitty-woman.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, they only had Andre Braugher for two episodes (although since Men of a Certain Age has been cancelled, perhaps we can dare hope for one more...?) It would have been great to have them explore House's relationship with his parents, as well as the pain management thing. (House's mom has only been on the show twice - wish they'd bring her on again.) I can almost understand how they could substitute the ibuprofen for Vicoden, but they never seem to settle on how much function House actually has in his leg, which is missing a lot of muscle. Pain is one thing, but function is something else entirely. Let's face it, though: as fans, we pay WAY too much attention to the plot, while the writers (who may not have been around since the beginning) have very limited time to come up with a shootable story that fits into an overarching theme that may (or may not) exist. I think we're really much more interested in the show than the writers are, imho.

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

I think we're really much more interested in the show than the writers are, imho.
I agree completely, but since the writers are payed to give us a consistent show I view this as a serious defect in them. [Yes, I never watch TV. Does it show so much?]

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

I understand there are limits to television as a storytelling medium, but it's still disappointing when the show doesn't take the opportunities it has -- and when it ignores realities like a chunk of muscle being missing.

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

I think the writers really dropped the ball on the House-in-therapy thing, it had real potential.

[warmdarkwoman.livejournal.com]

Word. There could have been so much we the audience and they the writers could have explored about why House is the way he is if they had had him spend more time in therapy. The show didn't have to turn into In Treatment or anything, but someone as screwed up as House isn't going to improve himself with one stay in the hospital and a couple of follow up therapy sessions.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

It had a ton of potential. They've hinted at so many things that we could've learned more about through therapy. Especially with Andre Braugher -- he and Hugh played well off each other.

[nuclearfootball.livejournal.com]

ahaha who the hell is that person that challenged you even

I'M JUST GONNA SAY I DISAGREE WITH ALL OF THIS

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Is it mean to say that I laughed when reading that person's comment to me? Do they think I fell off the turnip truck? "If you feel the need to explain..." LOLOLOLOLOLOL. When do I ever not feel the need to explain?

[nuclearfootball.livejournal.com]

there are SO MANY horrible comments that go unmolested -- or are even applauded -- all over this fandom (largely because i can't be bothered to make a new account EVERY TIME there's something stupid to respond to lol) and your comment is called out by some random whoever? ~*~*rolleyes~*~*

[sin-of-pride.livejournal.com]

The pain management thing- big fat yes. It just doesn't make sense that it's never brought up. Except so that the writers can forever keep House miserable and addicted *rolls eyes*

exploration of why it was Amber he was hallucinating
I found the implications of this completely fascinating and would have loved a more in-depth look at it. Mostly because, to me, it was directly related to House's relationship with Wilson and it could have led to fantastic insight into them.

in-depth discussion of his friendship with Wilson
The little we got on Wilson was House saying that Wilson would never leave him, no matter what House did to him and Nolan just accepting that. I would have wanted the whys behind that explored. Why someone who doesn't believe in unconditional love is able to trust in Wilson so completely despite all the issues between them. Just more about them in general.

During 'Baggage', when Wilson asked House to move-out, I just never bought how in the end they made the whole thing about Cuddy. Wilson pushing House away for Sam was completely at the center of that whole debacle for me :P

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

I am tired and out of eloquence, so I will just say:

Yeah, pretty much all of this.