{"id":3767,"date":"2024-01-23T10:00:23","date_gmt":"2024-01-23T09:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=3767"},"modified":"2024-01-05T12:19:13","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T11:19:13","slug":"postconfessional-mode-and-psychological-surveillance-in-the-crown-and-fleabag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2024\/01\/23\/postconfessional-mode-and-psychological-surveillance-in-the-crown-and-fleabag\/","title":{"rendered":"(Post)confessional Mode and Psychological Surveillance in The Crown and Fleabag"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Article Summary by Sarah Hagaman<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Two fictional therapy sessions are at the heart of my article, \u201c(Post)confessional Mode and Psychological Surveillance in <em>The Crown <\/em>and <em>Fleabag<\/em>.\u201d In Season 4 of <em>The Crown<\/em>, Princess Margaret\u2014the Queen\u2019s younger sister\u2014discovers she may suffer from a hereditary mental illness. The second, Season 2 of <em>Fleabag <\/em>shows <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Yy6kbVptkRY\"><strong>a short, bizarre therapy session<\/strong><\/a> in which Fleabag reveals nothing authentic about herself, frustrating the therapist. Instead, she tells her most intimate thoughts to the audience by breaking the fourth wall. Psychological surveillance, which I define as a mode of observing and monitoring someone\u2019s mental health for prognostic purposes, often occurs in a clinical or therapeutic setting, but it can be a social phenomenon, conducted by family or friends, or deployed through formal state apparatuses, as it is in <em>The Crown. <\/em>In <em>Fleabag, <\/em>the psychological surveillance is performed by us: the audience. The postconfessional is my second key term. In <em>The Crown<\/em>, Margaret\u2019s therapy session operates like a Catholic rite\u2014she reveals an authentic sense of self, and confesses to be absolved, or healed. Fleabag does something different; instead of confessional, she engages in the postconfessional. She uses parody and evasion while pretending to share intimate details about herself. At times, she seems self-reflective, but then smiles and tells the audience that she\u2019s good at therapy. By using a postconfessional mode, Fleabag refuses to enter the therapeutic process. Instead, we the viewers psychologically surveil Fleabag: we assess her mental state. I contrast these scenes to show how therapy is understood and enacted in increasingly de-centralized ways across mediums like social media and television in our contemporary moment. This article explores audience-driven therapeutic effects and asks ethical questions about surveillance, therapy, and its cultural enactment.<\/p>\n<p>Listen to the author discussing the article below:<\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-3767-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/files\/2024\/01\/Hagaman-Sarah-Postconfessional-Mode-and-Psychological-Surveillance-in-The-Crown-and-Fleabag.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/files\/2024\/01\/Hagaman-Sarah-Postconfessional-Mode-and-Psychological-Surveillance-in-The-Crown-and-Fleabag.mp3\">https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/files\/2024\/01\/Hagaman-Sarah-Postconfessional-Mode-and-Psychological-Surveillance-in-The-Crown-and-Fleabag.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<h3>Read the full article on <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mh.bmj.com\/content\/49\/4\/650\">the <em>Medical Humanities<\/em> journal website<\/a><\/strong>.<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Sarah Hagaman is a Ph.D. candidate in English literature at Vanderbilt University. Her research interests include transmedial 20th- and 21st-century portrayals of mental illness, psychiatry, and mad aesthetics. In her forthcoming dissertation, <\/em>The (Post)confessional Mode<em>, she traces how feminist confessions favor of parodic and performative modes when portraying complex medical conditions, especially mental illness. She has a forthcoming article in Literature and Medicine\u00a0on 1990s memoirs about hereditary mental illness, and her writing also appears in <\/em>Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction and ASAP\/J<em>. She currently researches the intersections of privacy, genetics, and culture with Vanderbilt\u2019s NIH-funded transdisciplinary project, GetPreCiSe: The Center for Genetic Privacy and Identity in Community Settings.<\/em><!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Article Summary by Sarah Hagaman Two fictional therapy sessions are at the heart of my article, \u201c(Post)confessional Mode and Psychological Surveillance in The Crown and Fleabag.\u201d In Season 4 of The Crown, Princess Margaret\u2014the Queen\u2019s younger sister\u2014discovers she may suffer from a hereditary mental illness. The second, Season 2 of Fleabag shows a short, bizarre [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2024\/01\/23\/postconfessional-mode-and-psychological-surveillance-in-the-crown-and-fleabag\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15028,15047],"tags":[15044],"class_list":["post-3767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal-announcements","category-special-issues","tag-research"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>(Post)confessional Mode and Psychological Surveillance in The Crown and Fleabag - Medical Humanities<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sarah Hagaman examines The Crown and Fleabag in relation to the postconfessional mode in today&#039;s article summary.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=3767\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"(Post)confessional Mode and Psychological Surveillance in The Crown and Fleabag - Medical Humanities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sarah Hagaman examines The Crown and Fleabag in relation to the postconfessional mode in today&#039;s article summary.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=3767\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medical Humanities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-01-23T09:00:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Pak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris Pak\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?p=3767#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?p=3767\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chris Pak\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0e11c1a9a0f1f9f2aa898a719652c44c\"},\"headline\":\"(Post)confessional Mode and Psychological Surveillance in The Crown and Fleabag\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-23T09:00:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?p=3767\"},\"wordCount\":445,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"research\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Journal Announcements\",\"Special Issues\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?p=3767#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?p=3767\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?p=3767\",\"name\":\"(Post)confessional Mode and Psychological Surveillance in The Crown and Fleabag - Medical Humanities\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-23T09:00:23+00:00\",\"description\":\"Sarah Hagaman examines The Crown and Fleabag in relation to the postconfessional mode in today's article summary.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?p=3767#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?p=3767\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?p=3767#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"(Post)confessional Mode and Psychological Surveillance in The Crown and Fleabag\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/\",\"name\":\"Medical Humanities\",\"description\":\"Providing a space for scholarly intervention into the conversation around medicine, as practice and philosophy, as it engages with humanities and arts.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Medical Humanities\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/files\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/blog-logo-mh.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/files\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/blog-logo-mh.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":34,\"caption\":\"Medical Humanities\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0e11c1a9a0f1f9f2aa898a719652c44c\",\"name\":\"Chris Pak\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d8e2081fcdeea32c307cbbb99bfceffaf5bd08d12c3d5e1b155798facd9674a9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d8e2081fcdeea32c307cbbb99bfceffaf5bd08d12c3d5e1b155798facd9674a9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d8e2081fcdeea32c307cbbb99bfceffaf5bd08d12c3d5e1b155798facd9674a9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Chris Pak\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/blog-team\\\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/author\\\/chrispak\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"(Post)confessional Mode and Psychological Surveillance in The Crown and Fleabag - Medical Humanities","description":"Sarah Hagaman examines The Crown and Fleabag in relation to the postconfessional mode in today's article summary.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=3767","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"(Post)confessional Mode and Psychological Surveillance in The Crown and Fleabag - Medical Humanities","og_description":"Sarah Hagaman examines The Crown and Fleabag in relation to the postconfessional mode in today's article summary.","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=3767","og_site_name":"Medical Humanities","article_published_time":"2024-01-23T09:00:23+00:00","author":"Chris Pak","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chris Pak","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=3767#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=3767"},"author":{"name":"Chris Pak","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/#\/schema\/person\/0e11c1a9a0f1f9f2aa898a719652c44c"},"headline":"(Post)confessional Mode and Psychological Surveillance in The Crown and Fleabag","datePublished":"2024-01-23T09:00:23+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=3767"},"wordCount":445,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/#organization"},"keywords":["research"],"articleSection":["Journal Announcements","Special Issues"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=3767#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=3767","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=3767","name":"(Post)confessional Mode and Psychological Surveillance in The Crown and Fleabag - Medical Humanities","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-01-23T09:00:23+00:00","description":"Sarah Hagaman examines The Crown and Fleabag in relation to the postconfessional mode in today's article summary.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=3767#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=3767"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=3767#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"(Post)confessional Mode and Psychological Surveillance in The Crown and Fleabag"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/","name":"Medical Humanities","description":"Providing a space for scholarly intervention into the conversation around medicine, as practice and philosophy, as it engages with humanities and arts.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/#organization","name":"Medical Humanities","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/files\/2017\/10\/blog-logo-mh.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/files\/2017\/10\/blog-logo-mh.png","width":300,"height":34,"caption":"Medical Humanities"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/#\/schema\/person\/0e11c1a9a0f1f9f2aa898a719652c44c","name":"Chris Pak","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d8e2081fcdeea32c307cbbb99bfceffaf5bd08d12c3d5e1b155798facd9674a9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d8e2081fcdeea32c307cbbb99bfceffaf5bd08d12c3d5e1b155798facd9674a9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d8e2081fcdeea32c307cbbb99bfceffaf5bd08d12c3d5e1b155798facd9674a9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Chris Pak"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/blog-team\/"],"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/author\/chrispak\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/345"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3767\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}