Paul Weston quotes from In Treatment

Paul

[to Alex] Remember you said that life chose you to be a member of an elite? That it wasn't your decision? Maybe that's an attitude you're comfortable with. You're comfortable with it because you don't have to make any decisions. It relieves you of responsibility. Your commanding officer, he makes the decisions, conveys them to you, and you execute them.

Paul

Is that why you came here today, Sophie? For me to tell you that you're all right? That you're not crazy? Is that the test you're afraid of failing?

Paul

If patients could see what I think about them. If they could really see inside my head, they'd head for the hills, believe me. They'd run for cover.

Paul

[to Sophie] You know, when you walked in here I thought to myself, somebody in your life has broken the rules. And I felt that, that if I had helped you change your clothes, that I would have been doing the same thing. I felt like you were testing me. I felt like you wanted to make sure that this was a safe place. That the same things that happen out there don't happen in here.

Paul

[to Gina] If I transferred every patient I was attracted to at some point, I wouldn't have any patients left. And it's not your place to say I should transfer a patient. It's like me telling that couple they should have an abortion. It's not what therapists do. We don't tell people how to run their lives.

Paul

[to Alex] You brought me a coffee machine because you intend to come here more often and you want to feel at home. Through Laura, you're trying to relate that message to me. 'She's your patient and I am too.' So we are... officially in therapy.

Paul

Grownups can forget. Children can't.

Paul

Ending a conflict isn't the best thing for the relationship, because you get so used to fighting each other that you might lose interest if the conflict ends.

Paul

What happened last night?

Laura

Well, what didn't happen? The long version or the bottom line? Because the bottom line is very simple. My life is over.

Paul

Then, you'd better tell me the long version.

Alex

So, are there any rules?

Paul

Rules?

Alex

Ground rules. Anything I should know before we start?

Paul

Oh... Not really. It's more or less... It's more or less up to you.

Alex

Oh, right, right. I'm a customer.

Paul

Yeah. Though in my profession we say that the customer is always wrong.

Paul

That's a... It's a therapists' joke.

Paul

[reading a report Sophie made him read] According to what it says here... it looks like you could have died too.

Sophie

Yeah, that would have solved a lot of problems.

Paul

What would it solve?

Sophie

Nothing. I didn't mean anything by it.

Gina

I always ask myself, 'If they were to diagnose therapists whose marriages fell apart, how many cases of erotic transference would they find?'

Paul

What does that mean?

Gina

That sometimes erotic transference in therapy is a test of your married life. If a therapist can't handle a situation where his patient falls in love with him, it may indicate some breakdown in his private life.

Laura

You know, Paul, I'm, I'm generally open to your interpretations, but right now it just seems like you're trying to be a bit of a...

Paul

Killjoy?

Laura

Killjoy, yes, something like that. So don't. Especially since joy is a very rare thing when it comes to me.

Paul

Perhaps I'm an alternative to everything that Andrew represents... Dependency, anxiety. But I am not a realistic option for you. This is a safe place where you can come, like David at the beach.

Laura

Yes, but with one big difference.

Paul

What's that?

Laura

I don't want you to adopt me, I want you to fuck me.

Sophie

Did you know, like, every girl there is a Mia or an Anna except me? They know it. They just don't do anything about it. They encourage it.

Paul

These girls, Anna and Mia, are they friends of yours?

Sophie

You don't know these girls? They're fun girls, especially Anna. Rexic...?

Paul

Anorexic. Okay. And Mia, bulimia?

Sophie

You're sharp as a tack.

Paul

Thank you.