If I could pick any other career to pursue it would be psychiatry. I’ve always been fascinated by figuring out how other peoples minds work. (It is no coincidence that my chosen field is the web, as I truly believe that it just as much about shrinking heads and understanding human behavior as it is art and technology.) So it is no surprise that I am totally enthralled with In Treatment (an American import of the Israeli show BeTipul).

While the premise is simple, the format is completely unique. The show is on for a half hour each night, five days a week. Each day follows a different patient, Monday is Laura, Tuesday is Alex, and so on until Friday where the therapist, played by Gabriel Byrne confesses his disdain for his patients and the struggles with his practice and personal life to a colleague played by Diane Wiest.

What is truly interesting about this show is its ability to break through the third wall. By that I mean, four nights a week you are basically the therapist, hearing the intimate details of each characters life, like silently participating in the treatment, just as Gabriel Byrne does.

But along the way you see small slices of the therapists life. The tensions slowly build up to the Friday session where he finally shares the impact of his practice on his personal life. After the third week or so, you start to realize that the show is not about the patients, but about the therapist. Each patient seems to represent a different facet of the therapist character. And through some sort of odd transference you somehow start to feel like these events are happening to you. You begin to watch a very intricate and unique plot unravel with you as a willing participant.

It is a very weird experience and hard to describe, but one I highly recommend trying.