Frank Spotnitz's Psychoanalysis of Doggett (and his feelings for Scully)

Ooh! I am scanning the 2002 TXF Yearbook magazine and came across this from an interview with Frank Spotnitz :)

QUESTION: For a while there we'd had the romantic scenario in which Follmer wanted Reyes who wanted Doggett who wanted Scully. Then the Doggett-wanting-Scully part of the equation seemed to disappear. What happened there?

FRANK SPOTNITZ: I have my own psychoanalysis of Doggett's character and to me the pining for Scully is still there. I believe that John Doggett is incapable of giving himself happiness. I think he punishes himself for the death of his son, blames himself and buries himself in his work and can never do enough to redeem himself in his own mind for his son's death and not finding the killer. To me, it makes perfect psychological sense that he would go after the woman he could never have and that he would be attracted to something that's impossible - that that's what he would allow himself to do with Scully. The woman he should be with and the woman who does understand him and supports him is Monica Reyes. The very fact that she is available to him - and he knows she has feelings for him - is what would keep him from ever responding.

So Frank confirms what I believed all along that the feelings that Doggett has for Scully was there. He went on to comment a bit about Doggett/Reyes, and basically said that Doggett would never respond to her (Reyes's) attraction to him - this goes into discussion Doggett's view of Reyes's flirtations with him, but since it goes hand-in-hand with his love for Scully, I think it's ok to post here. I just love when I read confirmation from TPTB about Doggett's feelings for Scully, and then to have him say that Doggett wouldn't respond to Reyes... just the icing on top of the cake :)

I do like Frank's psychoanalysis of the Doggett character because I agree with it 100%. I also think another part of Doggett's tendency to want what he cannot have is due to the fact that perhaps he doesn't want to be hurt again, as he was when his son was kidnapped/molested/murdered, and then when his marriage to Barbara ended soon after. I think his heart is fragile and he plays it safe. He cares very deeply for Scully, he loves her, but he desires to be with her because he knows that she is Mulder's and that he can never have her, therefore saving him any heartbreak that could have come from actually being involved with her. I think what we see with Doggett and his feelings for Scully in seasons 8 and 9 is a man who has allowed himself to fall hard for Scully, and though he wants what he cannot have, he struggles with that because in Scully he found someone that matches him perfectly, and someone who could make him happy, and who is compatible with him. I wish that we had had the chance to see more of that play out on the series. I just like the complexity that Doggett's feelings for Scully brought to the series, it made it very interesting to watch.

Dana Doggett wrote:Ooh! I am scanning the 2002 TXF Yearbook magazine and came across this from an interview with Frank Spotnitz :)

QUESTION: For a while there we'd had the romantic scenario in which Follmer wanted Reyes who wanted Doggett who wanted Scully. Then the Doggett-wanting-Scully part of the equation seemed to disappear. What happened there?

FRANK SPOTNITZ: I have my own psychoanalysis of Doggett's character and to me the pining for Scully is still there. I believe that John Doggett is incapable of giving himself happiness. I think he punishes himself for the death of his son, blames himself and buries himself in his work and can never do enough to redeem himself in his own mind for his son's death and not finding the killer. To me, it makes perfect psychological sense that he would go after the woman he could never have and that he would be attracted to something that's impossible - that that's what he would allow himself to do with Scully. The woman he should be with and the woman who does understand him and supports him is Monica Reyes. The very fact that she is available to him - and he knows she has feelings for him - is what would keep him from ever responding.

.

Yeah yar...always remember reading this...more proof that the pudding was getting mixed together and put in the oven but no one got it out of the oven....im in a weird mood tonight...you know what i mean!

LOL Dude! Thanks for bringing this thread back up to the top. I love this part of his article.

I love that this suggests that Doggett will never be with Reyes. Hahaha

Hell yeah.. I love it when the writer of the show just says outloud that Doggett was in love with Scully and it would make sense for his character.

Did they then have some sort of memory loss when writing season 9 - dont answer that.

I don't think they had memory loss, I think after it was announced that s9 was the last season that they wanted to try to make all characters happy with UST (or in the case of M&S a relationship). It was a stupid thing to do to close out s9 because it broke away from previous characterizations, but they did it. Happily, the majority of episodes continued to lean to Doggett/Scully all the way up to "The Truth" - and Robert and Gillian continued to play the UST between the two characters well through the end too. So... it really didn't go away at all, Reyes was just injected to be an annoyance.

[quote="gorgclaud"]

Dana Doggett wrote:Ooh! I am scanning the 2002 TXF Yearbook magazine and came across this from an interview with Frank Spotnitz :)

QUESTION: For a while there we'd had the romantic scenario in which Follmer wanted Reyes who wanted Doggett who wanted Scully. Then the Doggett-wanting-Scully part of the equation seemed to disappear. What happened there?

FRANK SPOTNITZ: I have my own psychoanalysis of Doggett's character and to me the pining for Scully is still there. I believe that John Doggett is incapable of giving himself happiness. I think he punishes himself for the death of his son, blames himself and buries himself in his work and can never do enough to redeem himself in his own mind for his son's death and not finding the killer. To me, it makes perfect psychological sense that he would go after the woman he could never have and that he would be attracted to something that's impossible - that that's what he would allow himself to do with Scully. The woman he should be with and the woman who does understand him and supports him is Monica Reyes. The very fact that she is available to him - and he knows she has feelings for him - is what would keep him from ever responding.

.

Yup, this confirms what I always saw in the character of Doggett. It makes him a very tragic figure, really. He simply cannot/ will not allow himself to be happy out of some kind of penance to his dead son.

And for some unknown reason (perhaps a psychology person could explain this) this is one of the main reasons why John Doggett appeals to me as a character, and why the idea of Doggett/Scully appeals to me too. He loves her, but he won't go after what he wants because of what happened previously in his life.

Perhaps I like to cheer/root for the underdog, and in the case of John Doggett and the Doggett/Scully relationship - both viewed as unpleasant by most of the XF fandom - they are the ultimate underdogs of the series, nevermind the fact that they are just so perfectly matched and unavailable to each other. I don't know why I find that so appealing to watch/want to see happen. I would love to see John and Dana find happiness with each other and overcome all the obstacles they surround themselves in their lives to find happiness in each other.

Totally agree.

1) I think its more sexy that its harder for them to get together. More things against them makes it more romantic if they were to win. Also its the whole forbidden thing. Makes you want it more.

2) I think they need each other and would suit eachother

3) The real Brit in me, always loves the underdog! ("UnderDogg Productions" was gonna be my other vidding production name. Its about supporting the one that is unpopular or isnt highly regarded to get good that he deserves and also, physically under the Doggett )

Yes so the more wrong it is the more sexy it is, but its also SO RIGHT. Does that make sense??

YEs. That absolutely makes sense.

Honestly, that whole under-dog thing really strikes a chord with me. Even though I was initially VERY skeptical of TXF trying to move beyond Duchovny, the moment I saw RP onscreen as Doggett, I felt strangely protective of him. I really wanted both the character AND the actor to succeed.

I also have a real problem with bullies, having had to deal with that as a kid. I felt like too many XF/ Duchovny/ MSR fans were bashing the shit out of Robert (AND Doggett) before ever giving the actor or the character a chance. That really pissed me off, and may have had a hand in pushing me towards Doggett. (I guess that's one thing I can be grateful to the asshole 'shippers for!!)

Yes, I was bullied at school and probably if I hung out with enough women it would continue and so the whole underdog thing made me protective of Doggett too. That and he was awesome and I was like "whats not to like?!"