For example, his reply to his psychiatrist after being confronted about showing up without an appointment is, "Dr. Green, how can you diagnose someone with an obsessive compulsive disorder and then act like I have some choice about barging in here?" When Carol personally affronts him, asking if he has any control over what she perceives to be one of his more undesirable characteristics, he responds with, "Yes I do, as a matter of fact. And to prove it..." Flashes of Melvin's sensitivity and self-realization are speckled throughout the movie, gradually increasing with each scene as his feelings for Carol get stronger. He even develops a remarkable sense of empathy (I have a hard time believing it was entirely selfish of him) by arranging a house call for Carol's ill son with his publisher's husband, a physician. Despite Melvin's generosity, it's evident that his self-esteem has suffered because he says to his neighbor's dog ("Verdell," the dog he agreed to care for while its owner recuperates from a mugging) as it pauses to avoid stepping on a crack in the sidewalk, as he does, "Don't you be like me! You stay just the way you are, 'cause you're a perfect man and I'm gonna take you home!" Projection of hope for himself, it
For example, his reply to his psychiatrist after being confronted about showing up without an appointment is, "Dr. Green, how can you diagnose someone with an obsessive compulsive disorder and then act like I have some choice about barging in here?" When Carol personally affronts him, asking if he has any control over what she perceives to be one of his more undesirable characteristics, he responds with, "Yes I do, as a matter of fact. And to prove it..." Flashes of Melvin's sensitivity and self-realization are speckled throughout the movie, gradually increasing with each scene as his feelings for Carol get stronger. He even develops a remarkable sense of empathy (I have a hard time believing it was entirely selfish of him) by arranging a house call for Carol's ill son with his publisher's husband, a physician. Despite Melvin's generosity, it's evident that his self-esteem has suffered because he says to his neighbor's dog ("Verdell," the dog he agreed to care for while its owner recuperates from a mugging) as it pauses to avoid stepping on a crack in the sidewalk, as he does, "Don't you be like me! You stay just the way you are, 'cause you're a perfect man and I'm gonna take you home!" Projection of hope for himself, it