Expert explains why Jamie kept telling the psychologist that he’s ugly in Adolescence
A former probation officer who has worked with serious offenders like Jamie from Adolescence has explained why he kept telling the psychologist that he’s ugly.
The current most-watched show on Netflix follows 13-year-old murder suspect Jamie Miller, who is played by Owen Cooper in his first ever acting role.
Co-writer Stephen Graham features as his father Eddie Miller, as Top Boy actor Ashley Walters stars as detective Luke Bascombe.
Critics are calling the four-parter 'flawless', while parents are seemingly worried about the rise in awareness of 'incel' behaviour' and knife crime.
Why Jamie keeps telling the psychologist that he’s ugly
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In the third episode of Adolescence, Jamie meets with psychologist Briony (Erin Doherty), who greets him with a hot chocolate and half a sandwich at the young offenders facility.
Quickly, Jamie becomes very confrontational and starts to yell at Briony, forcing her to take a break halfway through.
Mental health expert Janine Mitchell MSc worked as a probation officer in prisons across the UK, and in real life has been face-to-face with 'high risk offenders' like Jamie, many times.
She was tasked with working with male murders, paedophiles, rapists and drug dealers across the north of England from 2002 to 2015.
Janine, who has 25 years of experience in the field, knows exactly how Briony felt, and also has a theory on why Jamie kept telling her that he's ugly.
"A lot of these guys that I used to work with, you'll find that behind this kind of aggression, there's actually this real level of low self esteem, insecurity, and that quite often, is where violence will stem from," the psychologist told LADbible.
Janine, also a domestic abuse survivor, explained: "You know these feelings of insecurity, because you could see him flip from this real aggressive person to this vulnerable little child because he’s 13.
"He's a child at the end of the day. You know, you're not an adult. So he was just trying to look for approval and validation. Not that's any excuse. But he was seeking approval because he wasn't getting a kind of approval anyway.
"And again, that's nobody's fault, by the way. Everyone's doing the best job they can, parents, teachers, with everything that they're faced with."
Why the psychologist moves her chair to sit closer to Jamie
The Change For Success founder, who now runs a self-help business based in Bangkok, also revealed the clever reason why Briony put the chair around the table to speak to Jamie.
"So you've got to go in with this level of understanding and she was building up this rapport. And then you saw with him, the way he suddenly kind of lost it, quite quickly. But that just gave us an insight into what is going on in this little boy's head, you know?" Janine added.
"So she was able to bring him down. Did you see the way she moved the chair on the table? So she moved the chair on the table to bring him back down.
"She then comes round to the side, and that is a technique to build that rapport and build that relationship with the person. And she did that really well."
Topics: Adolescence, Mental Health, Parenting, TV, Stephen Graham, Owen Cooper
Anish Vij