The Shrink

The Shrink

On this journey there was a shrink
Whose patients’ problems did he under think –
As patients a many were screaming, “suicide,”
With profiles built upon pages of unthinkable lies.
Not a patient was able to make his issues clear,
For the shrink would slouch with a can of beer
During all 25 sessions every week
Where stories of his accidents and messes did he speak.
Never did one patient return for another session.
One walked out thinking he’d never learn his lesson.
Truth be told, this man has many problems himself –
Hiding all issues in a bottle of gin on his shelf.
Amidst his dilemmas he has one gift –
To play and sing on his guitar quite well and swift.
During the rare hours he is without a drink
He sits at the sidewalk with his open case lined with genuine mink,
Singing songs from his heart of secret fantasies and untold love
Which his audience simply could not get enough of.
The majority of this man’s income came from playing his guitar;
Some say it is a shame that his psychology practice didn’t bring him thus far.
Depressingly, he wears yesterday’s clothes day after day
With not a soul to help him I dare say.

         The characters on this modern pilgrimage are traveling to New York City on a coach bus from a company called The Hampton Jitney. The passengers gather at bus stops along the North and South Forks of Long Island to take this three hour venture to Manhattan in comfort. On the coach bus there are all sorts of people of varying social statuses and riches, all destined for the same place – New York City.
Among the passengers there is the stockbroker who dresses in a suit and rides The Jitney every day to his office in the city. He looks important and wealthy with his leather briefcase, but sometime a year or so back he blew his savings on frivolous things, leaving him to live on what the next paycheck brings him. He is miserable. Directly behind the stockbroker there is the elderly couple who also do not have a lot to live on. The husband has recently been diagnosed with a terminal cancer, yet the two are happily living in the moment, nonetheless. They are on their way to watching a musical on Broadway to lighten their spirits during this trying time. In the back seat of the bus there is the teenage girl dressed in the cheapest of clothes available to her, but she is one of the few travelers who appears to be content. This girl sits unaccompanied listening to her mp3 player as she stares thoughtfully out the window. Her parents don’t have a lot of money, so any transportation this young girl takes must be paid for out of her personal earnings. She has been working and saving her money for months to make this voyage to New York, for this day she is meeting up with a group of friends whom she hasn’t seen in over four years. Her fellow bus riders perceive her as a girl bound to be successful based on the eloquence in which she speaks when the host of the coach offers her a decent paying job. She is headed for success.
         Contrasting these bus riders is my character – the psychologist. Simply put, he is failing at his chosen profession. Thinking it will dull his pains this man resorts to drinking often, despite the fact that this deters any person from seeking his therapy. Each of Chaucer’s characters has a unique feature that is memorable to the reader. My psychologist needed a quality to be remembered by, so why not construct my character to be an incapable drunk? The drinking problem of the psychologist is ironic. Psychologists often help people move past alcoholism, but in this case the psychologist is the alcoholic. Chaucer uses irony to describe the Merchant and a few other characters going to Canterbury.
        This worthy man ful wel his wit bisette: 
        There wiste no wight that he was in dette, 
        So statly was he of his governaunce, 
        With his bargaines, and with his chevissaunce.” (Chaucer General Prologue 281-284)
        The ironic characters’ images imply that they are something that they are truly not. The Merchant appears to be a man of great wealth when in reality he is in debt to a multitude of people. The narrator speaks of this character with a different air, simply brushing over his characteristics and leaving the reader to connect the dots when he says, “Forsoothe he was a worthy man withalle; / But, sooth to sayn, I not how men him calle” (Chaucer General Prologue 285-286).
         However, to be a more realistic and believable character the psychologist needs to have an admirable quality, so he plays guitar on the streets during the rare hours that he is sober. He sits with his guitar case open and sings with an amazing talent that is entirely unexpected from such a character. In fact, this drunken mess has something going for him; life may not be a complete failure after all.
         On the bus the psychologist sits next to the teenage girl. The psychologist initiates conversation with the young girl and learns so much about himself and how to improve his standing in life. The teenager acts as a psychologist for him. They begin to discuss how they both enjoy music in their lives, and for the first time the troubled man is enjoying himself; he can strangely relate to some of the young girl’s experiences. Because of her he has experienced a remarkable epiphany. She has initiated the healing of the man “with not a soul to help him” (Bredemeyer 22).
         When I was creating the mental image of my character I knew that I wanted an all around ironic character with a career choice that stood out from most others…The first different career that came to mind was that of a hooker. Although the character would be perfect for what I set out for, I decided I didn’t want to go there…Thinking it might be interesting to write about a character with a possible career choice of my own, the second best character I could think of was a psychologist. My character shows where I hopefully will not end up in life. Helping others is included in the job description of a psychologist, but my psychologist is one who is in need of some serious counseling. The shrink I was going to invent was going to have issues of his own – a drinking problem.
         Though the psychologist’s physical description is not delineated to a great extent, one may imply that he is unkempt. The people who come to this man’s office think very little of him, yet the people who hear him playing his guitar on the streets admire him to the highest degree. Psychologists aren’t consistently thought to have great social and/or capital status, but in conversation they are typically mentioned with respect for what they do to help people in need of therapy. Many people of our times are dealing with mental disorders because of the stresses they have put on themselves, therefore psychologists are fairly common. For every person with a diagnosed disorder there is a psychologist who helps/helped counsel them.