(Post)confessional mode and psychological surveillance inThe CrownandFleabag

Abstract

Contemporary television’s portrayals of psychotherapy reveal anxieties surrounding surveillance and intimate self-disclosure in clinical and therapeutic settings. This paper analyses two twenty-first century television series featuring therapy sessions that observe and monitor mental states for prognostic purposes, engaging in what Alan Westin terms psychological surveillance: Peter Morgan’sThe Crown(2016–2023) and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’sFleabag(2016–2019). These shows feature contrasting modes of intimate self-disclosure—confessions and postconfessions—that emerge in psychotherapy. The confessional mode emphasises authenticity and a desire for healing. Postconfessions, on the other hand, are a parodical mode of revelation that refuse the authenticity and intimacy elicited by therapy and traditional confessional modes. Confessional discourses inThe Crownreveal that state power, reinforced by genetic authentication, can benefit from psychological surveillance. In contrast,Fleabaguses postconfessional discourse to implicate the audience in the therapeutic encounter, capitalising on the increasingly decentralised self-care modalities sustained through social media, television and other audience-driven mediums.