by SaraKay Smullens, MSW, LCSW, DCSW, CGP, CFLE, BCD
There have been numerous interpretations of Henry David Thoreau’s most frequently quoted phrase, “The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation.” The television series The Fall, an Irish-British crime drama series set in Northern Ireland (which premiered in Ireland and the United Kingdom in 2013 and is now available through Netflix and Amazon Prime) offers an interpretation of the underbelly of these words – for both men and women.
In more than 30 years as a social worker, I have learned that the topic that leads to the most discomfort in both individual and marital therapy is a discussion of sexual needs and desires. And what brings the most excruciating ill ease is the disclosure of sexual fantasies and an exploration of the personal needs and developmental truths one’s fantasies reveal. Much of the reason is due to shame, for many sexual fantasies involve power, control, and aggression that we are taught repetitively have nothing to do with love and marriage. Further inhibiting joy and fulfillment in countless relationships is the intractable division of women into virgins and angels or vamps and whores.
Social workers well know the dangers of the inhibition to discuss a whole range of discomforting sexual desires that can seem to control one’s life. These dangers are glaringly depicted in this three-season portrayal created and written by Allan Cubitt, which has been understandably criticized for unsparing sexual violence and murders of young women brutalized by a serial killer. However, this said, Cubitt’s work coupled with genius casting contributes true positives: At a time when many believe that violence toward others is genetically and biologically based, Cubitt brings to light what is far too easily ignored and overlooked -- finding pleasure and release in horrendous violation is due to grave deprivation and loss in early formative years. And further, Cubitt introduces us to the painful longing of human beings, surely not sadists, who yearn for satisfying love, yet are unable to find the emotional and sexual intimacy they crave.
As I frame this unsettling, provocative series, there will be no spoilers. I will concentrate only on selected themes (there are many to follow) and introduce major characters in broad strokes. Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson) is a senior investigating officer sent from London to Northern Ireland to bring her expertise to a murder investigation that has remained active for more than 28 days. She is able to demonstrate to her male counterparts that the murders terrifying their community are not random, but the work of a compulsive fetish burglar and voyeur, a vicious sexual psychopath who brings misery to all he touches. Serial killer Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan), a grief counselor of superior intelligence, is married to deeply respected and devoted neonatal nurse, Sally Ann (Bronagh Waugh), with two young children, son Liam (David Beattie) and daughter Olivia (Sarah Beattie). His victims, all successful and beautiful professional women, are carefully studied and documented, then brutally murdered in violence corroded Belfast.
Parallel to Spector’s meticulous selection of desired objects of pathology and subsequent murder scenes (shot in horrifying detail, and with the camera work, lighting, and prep worthy of an art display) is police corruption and error (including a major error by Gibson); male domination; clergy abuse; sexual expression that torments; sexual attraction that is inescapable, inexplicable, and repellent; pursuit of sexual outlet devoid of emotional involvement; the dire impact when a wife and mother is tormented and abandoned; and repeatedly, how profoundly a son craves a father’s love and constancy -- and how adoringly a daughter longs to view her father.
Above all, the series illustrates that as a child grows older, parental and caretaker rage, cruelty, rejection, neglect, and abandonment (either intentional or not) leads to sexual fantasies and impulses that can destroy lives, and with no intervention, lead to the documented Fall – with each segment of the series offering titles such as The Hell Within Him, Wounds of Deadly Hate, Dark Descent, and The Vast Abyss.
One does not view The Fall. Rather, one endures it. The prolonged scenes of depravity and excruciatingly slow, repetitive pace, especially in Season Three (where extensive operating room depiction is remarkably accurate), demand viewing intermissions. The experience, however, is of deep value because of the light it shines on the human condition. Further, it illuminates how essential it is for social work education to highlight childhood development in formative years, including a child’s earliest needs to be held, comforted, fed, nurtured -- and an understanding that childhood development holds grave sexual meaning. When care and nurturance are withheld, there will be terrifying gaps in all aspects of progressive psycho-sexual development. Further, the series shows why and how it is one thing to experience sexual impulses based on control and rage – for this can be discussed and understood. It is quite another to be both unwilling and unable to control vicious impulse.
Surely, the series illustrates the necessity of a trained social worker in every school, both to teach as well as identify children who require devoted support, and when necessary therapy, to deal with the realities within their own families -- and to coordinate services from other resources. And most importantly, to be there – and trusted – and fill painful gaps during these crucial developmental years.
SaraKay Smullens, MSW, LCSW, DCSW, CGP, CFLE, BCD, whose private and pro bono clinical social work practice is in Philadelphia, is a certified group psychotherapist and family life educator. She is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award (2004) and the Social Worker of the Year (2018) from the Pennsylvania chapter of NASW, and the 2013 NASW Media Award for Best Article. In 2018, she was one of five graduates of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice selected for the school’s inaugural Hall of Fame. SaraKay is the author of Burnout and Self-Care in Social Work.