Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and the Aesthetics of Serial Narration in The Sopranos (1999–2007)

Abstract

Abstract Against the backdrop of the difficult therapeutic relationship between Tony Soprano and Jennifer Melfi and its embeddedness in the series’ dramaturgy, this article explores what psychoanalysis accomplishes for the US TV series The Sopranos (1999–2007), in particular for its perspectives on serial narratives and their reception. It analyses how select tenets of psychoanalysis (in particular, the psychoanalytic setting, countertransference, and its interminability) self-reflexively interrogate the aesthetics of serial narration and the ethical underpinnings of the audience’s attachment to the series.