Jesse

Jesse is a teenager whose mother was scared to sleep because she believed he was a sociopath.

History
Jesse's mom, Linda, came to Violet for a consult to get sleeping pills. She hadn't been sleeping well since her husband died, but it had recently gotten worse. Violet wanted to talk about what was causing the insomnia. Linda admitted that she was scared of her son, Jesse, whom she believed was a sociopath. She said he'd killed their dog. She found the dog in the garage wrapped in a blanket in the garage with a broken neck. She told Violet he changed when his father died, becoming cold. Linda said she just wanted the pills, but Violet wanted to see Jesse and wanted to help.

Linda brought Jesse in to see Violet. She asked him about the dog and he wouldn't respond to her questions about the dog or about his father. Jesse just asked if he could leave. Violet decided just to let him stew for a while to try to get him to talk. She later went back to Jesse and said she had concerns and didn't feel comfortable letting him leave. She gave him the MMPI to fill out and asked him to do it, saying that he could do it or they could sit there for the rest of the day. His test was inconclusive.

Violet saw Linda again and Linda was upset because Violet said the tests were inconclusive. She couldn't sleep. She would lie awake in bed with a hammer under her pillow because she was so scared of what Jesse might do to her.

Jesse confronted Violet, upset because she'd made his mom cry. He told her to let it go. Violet said she wouldn't stop asking questions and asked him again what happened to the dog. Jesse asked her if she knows what it costs to put a dog down. The dog had cancer and the treatment cost thousands of dollars, but his mom was going to pay for it because she couldn't bear to watch him lose his dog after losing his father to cancer. So he killed the dog so his mother wouldn't have to go through that expense. Jesse started to cry as he talked about it, saying his father said he had to be the man and had to be responsible.

Familial
His father died of cancer the year before. His mother struggled to make ends meet because the cancer had nearly bankrupted them.

Notes and Trivia

 * He'd had his dog, a Beagle named Dodger, since he was six.