Back On the Couch

Patient Tony Fleming is late for his psychiatric appointment with eminent psychiatrist Dr Frank Reynolds. The session begins as the doctor tries to get to the bottom of why his patient had difficulties making friends in his youth. It soon becomes apparent that his constant interrupting and apologist behaviour may have been at the core of people’s reticence to like him and may still be an issue for him. To make Mr Fleming see that no one is infallible, the doctor makes an off-the-cuff comment that even he had difficulties making relationships in his youth. However, his problems weren’t with his peers but with his mother. As the memories start flooding back, Dr Reynolds becomes entrenched in his past and begins to tell his patient of his woes - in particular, one incident that haunts him to this very day. As the story unravels, it is Mr Reynolds who takes on the mantle of a listener and the doctor, the patient, even ending up lying on his own couch, crying like a baby. At last, a secret held for so long gets aired in the most unusual of circumstances.