Antwone Fisher

Director: Denzel Washington

Producerss:Randa Haines, Todd Black, Denzel Washington
Screenwriter: : Antwone Fisher
Cast: Derek Luke, Denzel Washington, Joy Bryant, Salli Richardson, Stephen
Snedden
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Year of Release: 2002

Review
This movie is based on a true story of the man who wrote the screenplay -
Antwone Fisher, an African-American in the U.S. Navy stationed in San Diego,
California. In one of the first scenes he gets into a fistfight with a fellow officer.
Fisher's angry outburst is sudden, swift, and virtually unprovoked.
Antwone has to be evaluated and treated by the African American
psychiatrist, Dr. Jerome Davenport. Their first sessions are largely characterized
by the patient's squirming in silence after stating, "you may be able to make me
come here but you can't make me talk", and Davenport's tough love.
Toward the end of the fifth session, Antwone finally says, "what do you want
me to say?", and Davenport responds, "It's not what I want you to say, it's what you
want to tell me." And their conversation continues: "I understand you like to fight."
"That's the only way some people learn." "But you pay the price for teaching them."
At this point Antwone begins sharing his story, and the emotional floodgates open.
During the subsequent weekly therapy the psychiatrist asks gentle but probing
questions, listens compassionately, and helps his patient understand patterns of
instilled self-loathing that were established in the days of slavery, and have been
passed down from generation to generation. Davenport uses an integrative approach
that blends psychodynamic, behavioral, interpersonal, humanistic orientations, and
bibliotherapy.
During their weekly sessions, Antwone tells the therapist about his birth
father, who died at the hands of a former girlfriend before Antwone was born, and
about his widowed mother, who gave birth to him while she was in prison. Because
she did not claim him, he lived in an orphanage for two years, and eventually landed in
the home of the Tates, a storefront preacher and his wife. His foster family
experiences were marked by serious physical and emotional abuse, molestation, and
abandonment. Thrown out of the Tate house after standing up to his foster mother,
he stayed briefly in a men's shelter. Then Antwone joined the Navy after a criminal
escapade that cost his closest childhood friend's life and nearly his own. He
experienced his friend's death as another abandonment.
As Antwone's sessions continue, he falls in love with another young sailor,
Cheryl Smolley. He is shy around her, asks Davenport for tips on dating, and
struggles with the fact that he is still a virgin.
The psychiatrist urges his patient to return to Cleveland, Ohio, to search for
his biological family and find closure. At first Antwone resists, but finally, with
Cheryl's help, he flies back. There he has a confrontation with his abusers, a
conversation with the mother who abandoned him, and a reunion with his father's
family. This journey proves fruitful in ways that are both agonizing and liberating.
As Antwone's wounds start healing, he begins to own the inner strength that
had enabled him to weather the storms of the past. He breaks through his defensive
shell and emerges as a smart and sensitive young man who writes poetry, draws, and
loves his girlfriend.

Boundary considerations
Jerome Davenport crosses several boundaries while treating Antwone. Are
these boundary crossings beneficial because they support a certain treatment
method or goal, are they unavoidable, or are they unethical and possibly harmful for
the patient?
1. Flexibility of boundaries in the service of chosen
treatment modalities and goal
Therapeutic time frame:
Davenport usually schedules one to three sessions to evaluate a patient and to make
recommendations. In order to give Antwone the time necessary to open up and to let
him carry the responsibility for treatment success, the psychiatrist states that the
three sessions do not start until Fisher begins talking.
To avoid putting pressure on Antwone, the psychiatrist does paperwork or eats a
sandwich while waiting for his resistant patient to start speaking.
According to the boundaries that were set earlier, Davenport terminates after
three productive therapy sessions. Since many issues remain unsettled, Antwone
acts out again by attacking a peer. He also explodes in the clinic's waiting room and
behaves toward Davenport in a highly inappropriate way. When Antwone apologizes
and says "I don't know what to do", the psychiatrist admits his mistake in insisting
on early termination and agrees to see him for ongoing weekly sessions.
Later in their work, the psychiatrist attempts to terminate again. This triggers his
patient's abandonment issues. When Antwone consequently describes another
traumatic incident, Davenport sticks to his plan, and tells his patient to contact him
again only after he finds his family.
Therapist-patient interactions outside the therapeutic hour:
When Antwone makes a surprise visit to the psychiatrist's home, Davenport sets
boundaries clearly and quickly.
As he takes on the role of a surrogate father, the psychiatrist invites his patient
to a family dinner at Thanksgiving. It appears as if Davenport designed this
invitation as a treatment intervention: because Antwone gets the opportunity to
experience a supportive family for the first time in his life, he has a corrective
emotional experience. In other cases such an invitation might be inappropriate,
because it could lead to an interference with therapeutic objectivity.
In a subsequent scene they meet in a jail cell. This intervention seems supportive
and therapeutically necessary.
Dr. Davenport says during one session, "I'm gonna give you my phone number. If you
have any problems, any questions at all, you call me ... any time of day or night. ... Give
me a call, ok?" Assuming the therapist planned it as a re-parenting intervention, this
boundary crossing has a therapeutic purpose.
Use of language:
Several times the psychiatrist addresses Antwone as "son". Davenport evolves
temporarily into a father figure for a man robbed of guidance and in need of re-
parenting. This use of language might be questionable in a different therapeutic
context, especially if dependency develops.
Self-Disclosure:
When asked, the psychiatrist speaks openly about his wife and their relationship.
Antwone needs this modeling because he doesn't have any relationship experience.
To normalize his patient's anxiety about dating, Davenport also speaks about his
own nervousness.
After termination of their sessions, Davenport tells Antwone that working with him
made him a better therapist and husband. The psychiatrist's stiff upper lip and
grin-and-bear-it attitude had begun to undermine his marriage before his work with
Antwone had a transformational effect on him. Disclosing this seems to support the
therapeutic outcome.
2. Unavoidable boundary crossing
Antwone is ordered to see psychiatrist and superior officer Davenport at an
outpatient clinic of a U.S. naval base, to be evaluated and screened for psychological
issues that might impair service and to provide brief therapy. When Antwone skips
his second session, the psychiatrist has officers escort him to his appointment the
following week. In a military environment, these boundary crossings appear to be
common and apparently sometimes necessary.
3. Unethical boundary violations
Confidentiality:
Dr. Davenport tells his wife details that Antwone had told him during their
sessions.
Confidentiality and the therapeutic container are compromised when sessions are
held in the psychiatrist's living room with the door open and his wife in the house,
and later, in a men's room.
Self-Disclosure:
When he encourages Antwone to locate his family, Davenport says "I love you, son".
If stated outside the context of a therapeutic intervention, this might reflect the
therapist's counter-transference: Antwone becomes a surrogate son to the
psychiatrist, who is himself in denial about the pain of his childless marriage. If
Davenport's professional judgment is impaired, an emotionally exploitive dual
relationship might develop that can be detrimental for Antwone's treatment.
Boundary crossings in other movies
Dating from the first psychiatric film, Dr. Dippy's Sanitarium (1906), over
500 movies dealing with psychotherapy have been made. Some of these films show
only short episodes of a therapist-client relationship. However, most of them
portray some form of boundary crossing. Discussing the associated ethical questions
after watching movies like Prime (2005), Stay (2005), Good Will Hunting (1997), or
Ordinary People (1980) can create a productive, enjoyable learning experience.