Dr. Fletcher

(writing notes) Helen Watcher wrote on www.helpmypatients.com: "I've got it - push the envelope with Helen's Freudian theories. The further you push, the faster they'll break down."

Helen

I feel like it's really weird that I have this obsession with NASCAR. I'm very feminine in all respects but for some reason I so drawn to and enthralled by NASCAR. I don't think that it's some weird anti-feminine thing.

I kind of trace it back to my childhood. Because my father was this very strong figure and he loved NASCAR. My mother was kind of weak.

Dr. Fletcher

Let's go with that. What about that? Where does that take you?

Helen

I kind of always resented her submission. She was so easily convinced of anything and so easily shut up. She just had this very 1950s antiquated model of the domestic wife and I never wanted to follow that. I always wanted to be a strong, professional woman the way that my father was such a strong man with so much conviction.

Dr. Fletcher

So your mom sounds like she was pretty small and pathetic in a lot of ways. She didn't have a career, she didn't do much.

Helen

No, she didn't have a career. And I always did know I wanted to have a career. I never wanted to follow in her footsteps. I wouldn't call her pathetic -

Dr. Fletcher

Well, I would say that she was. It sounds like she was really not that substantive. She wasn't that much of a person, I guess.

Helen

But she had these other redeeming qualities. She had this really natural ability to draw.

Dr. Fletcher

Yeah, but I think what you're saying is that she was really basically a nothing and you didn't respect her.

Helen

No! She wasn't a nothing. That's a terrible thing to say. She had a lot of redeeming qualities. And she had moral strength.

Dr. Fletcher

I don't know if you respected her because I'm not respecting her from what I hear.

Dr. Fletcher

(writing notes) I tried to impress on Helen the faultiness of her thinking about her family.

Dr. Fletcher

It sounds like she was a pretty bad woman and a pretty bad mother.

Helen

No, she was a wonderful mother. I'm not questioning her maternal abilities.

Dr. Fletcher

Well, I would say what you're saying is that she was not much of a mother to you and it sounds like she really brought you down in a lot of ways.

Helen

No! She didn't bring me down. She may not have been a professional role model but I am still like her on many levels.

Dr. Fletcher

She was a very bad role model is what I think you're saying.

Helen

She was not a bad role model! We're talking about my mother.

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