The Psychology of the Sopranos

Gabbard, a psychoanalyst, works through the HBO series character by character, treating Tony Soprano's panic attacks, his mother Livia, and his sessions with Dr Jennifer Melfi as clinical material. Chapters such as 'Bada Bing and Nothingness' and 'Scenes From a Marriage' move between the show's plot and the mechanics of the consulting room it depicts. The book grew out of an online discussion Gabbard led on Slate, and it keeps that conversational register while staying close to the therapy itself.

For a clinician the value sits in its reading of Melfi's position: the pull of a charming, dangerous patient, the countertransference that follows, and the question of whether insight can reach a man organised around violence. Gabbard treats Tony's antisocial traits and his dependence on his analyst as one problem rather than a diagnosis. Basic Books published it in 2002, while the series was still running.