Sharp Objects mental health check in: Closer
By Erin Qualey
On Sharp Objects, Calhoun Day brings out the crazy in Adora. Her true self starts to show as she engages in manipulative behaviors and throws tantrums.
Hello there. Are you watching Sharp Objects on HBO? Are you curious to learn more about mental health and addiction? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Sharp Objects will delve into some serious territory when it comes to women and mental health issues. As a therapist focusing on substance abuse treatment for over a decade, my hope is to sherpa us all through this limited series by providing some real-life context for the disorders and behaviors seen on screen. Ready to dive in? Let’s go. This week, our focus is on family dynamics – specifically the idea of the ‘identified patient’.
“I never loved you. I hope that’s some comfort to you.”
Adora officially cemented her status as one of the worst mothers in the history of ever throughout the most recent episode of Sharp Objects, titled “Closer”. Every single breath she takes on Calhoun Day seems to be in the service of undermining Camille’s happiness and well-being. The catalyst for the day is presumably Camille’s just-published article about the Wind Gap murders, but it’s apparent that Adora has just been lying in waiting, ready to unleash her quiet brand of fury on her eldest daughter.
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Throughout Calhoun Day, Adora (a vibrantly venomous Patricia Clarkson) slinks around, focusing mostly on how to undermine and undercut Camille (Amy Adams). She kicks off the day by enacting a nightmare version of the typical rom com makeover montage scene. But Pretty Woman, this ain’t. Adora drags her daughters to a clothing store and slyly forces Camille to reveal her scarred body to Amma (Eliza Scanlen). It’s a humiliating sequence that belies Adora’s true relationship with her eldest. She clearly takes pleasure in Camille’s weakness, offering up a few thinly veiled insults before abandoning the situation she’s created, leaving her daughter behind to tend to emotional wounds opened by her very own mother. Adora’s objective is clearly to degrade Camille’s spirit by riling her up, thereby giving her a sense of power and purpose. This dynamic is basically the asbestos of mother-daughter relationships, poisoning the women slowly from the inside out.
The remainder of the episode spends much time lingering on the tense sight lines between Camille and Adora. The two women wander through the party, perpetually connected via a barbed thread of dark, tangled history. They’re playing a game of cat and mouse, only Adora was the one who set the rules ages ago. If Adora can discredit Camille under the guise of being a doting and caring mother figure, she wins. There’s no path to victory for Camille.
Calhoun Day continues on, marked by Adora’s attempts at poisoning Camille in every way possible. Decked out in an ornately embroidered dress – appropriately adorned with several giant stinging bees – she drags Camille’s crush Richard (Chris Messina) on a “tour” throughout her ornate home, giving herself an excuse to dish dirt on her daughter’s mental health issues. Then, when the day is done, she calls Camille onto the front porch for a drink and drops an emotional bomb: Adora never loved her. Or maybe she did, but she is choosing this moment to poison her daughter’s mind – to mess with her sense of self – because it makes her feel stronger.
It’s like Mean Girls meets Mommy Dearest. And it all adds up to bad news for Camille.
Sharp Objects is a fascinating study in family dynamics because the family in question is so small yet so fractured. Camille’s father was never in the picture, and her step father Alan is mentally checked out to the point of indifference. His single, solitary role is to empower Adora as she does as she pleases.
Allowed to operate in any way she sees fit, it’s clear that long ago, Adora chose to mark Camille as the problem child in the family, and she actively contributes to her distress in order to keep her where she needs her to be so she can serve as a scapegoat for the family dysfunction as a whole. This is a phenomenon known in therapy as the “identified patient”.
As a substance abuse therapist, I’ve seen many relatives come in for family sessions and focus their ire squarely on the person struggling to maintain sobriety. Sure, individuals who have been in the throes of addiction are capable of doing terrible things, especially to their family members, but one individual’s addiction very rarely paints the entire picture of dysfunction. There are often maladaptive behaviors that exist within a family unit that need to be addressed. Many families are willing to go the distance by recognizing the problem as a holistic issue. These families attempt to enact changes in communication within the household. Others do not.
Instead, the families that choose to avoid working on their issues do so by pointing fingers at a single individual. They lump all of their problems onto that person, weighing them down with waves of toxic sludge and then wonder why that person can’t seem to climb out from underneath the mess.
If Camille and the Crellin family ever made it to any sort of meaningful therapy, she would most certainly be the identified patient. Now that Camille is home, Adora consistently points to her as the problem child, looking to the community for sympathy and support as she deals with her wounded and dangerous daughter.
But if Camille is dangerous, it’s only because Adora has twisted her that way. And as long as Camille stays “sick”, Adora doesn’t have to confront her own issues. So far, we’ve seen Adora decline to participate in therapy when her daughter was in crisis, abandon her in her most critical time of need, and straight up tell her that she doesn’t love her. At this point, Camille should really be headed to a hotel and checking out of this matriarchal nightmare, but old habits are hard to break. Her continued interaction with her mother perpetuates the cycle, serving as a form of emotional self-harm as she digs into old, festering wounds that may never completely heal.
Please Note: If you feel as if you need to reach out after watching a triggering event on TV, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK or the SAMHSA Treatment Referral Hotline at 1-877-SAMHSA7. If you or someone you know are in immediate crisis, do not hesitate to call 911.
‘Sharp Objects’ airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.