"Jade, I think you've come very far in your ability to interact with people non-hostilely, but you can't quite get where you need to be."
"I think you have an issue with my lack of compliance with your treatment on the grounds that being part of society is not necessarily the bull's-eye for every life. You go on and on about everyone having their own comfortable normal and the right thing emotionally being the intuitively comfortable thing, but you don't seem to recognize hostile relations are my niche. And you keep pushing me to interact with my parents, which only breeds misery. We're incompatible personality types, and that's only exacerbated by people trying to push us together." Never fight a battle unarmed. "And frankly, you've developed somewhat of a god complex. Just because patients agree with logical conclusions does not mean you came to the right conclusion. In my case, I know a lot of my conclusions were illogical, and you have a problem with not being able to see the logic behind them, because you secretly want to rule the world with your psychology."
"You're the most difficult patient I've ever had to deal with. Someone with so much insight really doesn't have much of a need for therapy."
"Yeah, well. Parents. First what you think is your daughter is born, then as a little kid you dress her and raise her right, but she just turns out…not wrong, but different from what you think is right. So you try to offer her money and vacations if she behaves how you want her to and you blame yourself for not being able to control her. And then when you can't control her, you ignore that. But to ignore that, you need to ignore her. God knows why they think I need therapy. They probably need some just to deal with me. I wish they would realize that what you do doesn't always determine what you get."
"Yes, I actually advised them to take steps to get a family therapist—"
"For that you'd need a family."
"Yes, well, I told them at the very least they should see their own."
"Good."
"Yes…
Look, I don't mean to be rude, but if you still insist on my not analyzing anything out loud, do you at least want to make use of the legal obligation I have to not tell anyone what you say unless it'd end up harming someone?"
"But it's the highlight of the hour and a half session when you're rude!"
"Alright then. You should accept that your parents and society all combined to make you have a life crisis, and then you need to get over it, because anyone's idea of a proper family is a load of crap anyway and you just happen to be more towards the end of the spectrum than most people. But judging by your want for them to stop ignoring you, you are more in the middle than you think."
"I don't actually want them to pay attention to me, I just want someone to want to pay attention to me.
So, how about that legal obligation thing…"
"Go ahead."
"There's this girl. Who I really like—as a friend. And she likes me, but if I show her I like her, she'll just get too close without me pushing her away and I'll get hurt, or she will. At the very least she'll be scared. And I don't even know who she is yet. I haven't had years studying her emotions to be able to predict her every move like I have with most people I hang around. I mean I don't even need years usually. But she's different. And then my acting teacher complicates it and makes us husband and wife in a play. And—don't ask yet, I'm not done. And that complicates it because I've entertained one or two sexual thoughts about her, because she's an attractive girl. But I don't have romantic feelings, just platonic ones. But even revealing the strength of the platonic ones would scare her. You know, because people tend to latch on to feelings and kindle their growth more the less often they have them. And then I'm concerned that the only reason I like her as a friend is that I don't know what she's going to do next so I can't play with her as easily. I know that's part of why I'm friends with Cat, but I've known her long enough to figure out that's not the only reason why."
"Sounds like you need to—"
"Can it."
"think about it, reach a conclusion, and act on it."
"Thanks…"
"Well, that's the end of the hour and a half. I still can't believe you spend the first hour of it trying to intimidate me with scissors every time."
"Well it works most of the time."
"See your scissors next week—and Jade… I really respect you. You're a teenager, and you're a little messed up, but you know what works for you, so you do it. And when it doesn't work for society, you change it. And when it barely functions, you're brave enough to say fuck it, it works."
"Thanks. Take care of the loonies, Michael. And remember to tell them random people care about them, just because they don't want to see people go through the same things they've been through. That's an authorization for a breach of confidentiality."
I know he smiles every time I give him a little inspirational quote to tell people. I mean, no one better to tell him how to show people you care than someone who doesn't believe anyone cares, right? I think his favorite was, 'I'm not going to tell you everything will be alright, because that's a load of crap. What I can tell you is that the people who care will do everything in their power to make it alright. And even in the face of a cruel world, that's a formidable force on anyone's side.' He's such a sap.