The Sopranos is an American television program that ran from the year 1999 until 2007. It is often regarded by critics as the greatest television series of all time. The program’s premise centers on a fictional Italian-American crime family from New Jersey. Tony Soprano, is the program’s main character, who is a Capo in the DeMio crime family. The show conceptualizes his everyday life, the difficulties he faces trying to balance a running a criminal organization and have a normal and natural home life.
The series opens with Tony Soprano beginning a therapy session with Dr. Jennifer Melfi after having a panic attack. We learn that Tony is experiencing depression along with the panic attacks. In the session, he refers to himself as a “sad clown” smiling on the outside, but crying on the inside.…show more content… Melfi’s husband, Richard, who is also a clinical psychologist, refers to Tony as Alexithymic. The short definition of this being; the inability to talk about feelings due to a lack of emotional awareness. Though this may be true, Tony shows many more symptoms of mental illness than just a lack of emotional awareness. Tony often reacts with rage during times of emotional distress, instead of looking at why a certain event made him feel this way, he takes it out on the nearest possible person. Whether that be in a verbal fashion or physical.
The exact cause of Narcissistic Personality Disorder is not known. However, most researchers and mental health professionals believe there are many contributing factors. One may argue that Tony’s behavior is learned, from his father. When Tony was a child, his father was a Mafia Capo, just as he is when the series takes place. When he was growing up, he learned that he could; lie, cheat, and steal to get what he