ssment attaching to Conrad's attempted suicide, which Everybody Knows About and which is hampering his ability to fit in at school. It is inescapably obvious--though not, initially, to Beth--that Bucky was so much her favorite that Conrad, who survived the accident, is someone she has always rather tolerated than loved. More disinterestedly concerned about Conrad is Calvin, who calls him "Connie" and who encourages him to see a psychiatrist, one Dr. Berger. But Calvin cannot unambiguously articulate even his most generous emotions, to either Conrad or Beth.
One can be forgiven for thinking that, with three disturbed people in the family suffering, they send Conrad to the psychiatrist, as if Berger will fix what is wrong and everything will magically get back to normal. Berger is presented as a perfectly competent counselor, having an informal yet perceptive style, and in drawing Conrad out, he also elicits information that enables him to accurately infer the truth of Conrad's emotional status. The methods Berger uses bespeak helpful counselor behavior, as Okun describes it. For example, Berger does not talk in technical psychological terms (Okun 33) but essentially asks Conrad what he wants to achieve in therapy. The fact that Conrad articulates a need for control reveals his vulnerability, but it also highlights what has been the dominant dynamic of his family life. Calvin has always been the confident and comfortable head of the family, enabling Beth to structure a family life of order and precision. Bucky's death puts everything into chaos, exposing the fragility and superficiality of the orderly family life, and in particular Beth's controlling, or more exactly repressed, nature. It is she alone who refuses to go into counseling, she alone who refuses to confront the emotional fraud at which she has been the center, she alone who decides in favor of repression rather
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