Psychoanalysis and the novel The Group

Two chapters - 11 and 12 - in Mary McCarthy's novel The Group (1963) were excerpted back in the day by the New Yorker, and you can see why: Each holds together well as a single narrative (w/ some editorial pruning of the names of other members of The Group of 8 Vassar grads who pop in w/ advice or comments at various points in these chapters) and each is a terrific chapter, further evidence of MMcM's excellent writing. First, we learn about Polly (each chapter focuses on a different member of The Group, but without following a strict structure or order, which gives the novel a nice feeling of openness rather than of plodding forward along a predetermined course), who was the only science major in the group (most sci majors, she notes, were socially awkward outsiders or, worse, grinds) working in a medical lab and living in a small apartment in a rooming house (other tenants are socialist/communist European emigres) in St. Mark's Sq. She's the most bland of the group members, a real wallflower; her family had money and social connections but lost it in the crash of 29, and her parents now live in tight straits running a  family farm in western Mass and remembering the old days. In Ch 11 we see that Polly is having a love affair w/ LeRoy, the book editor who was kind to Libby when she was seeking entry into publishing; he is separated from his leftist, free-love wife (and son) and for a time Polly and LeRoy seem like a good couple - but we learn that he is in analysis five days a week, and this becomes a huge issue between them: Polly continually worries about what's really "wrong" with him and about what he discusses in his sessions. Eventually, he claims to become "blocked" as he tries w/out success to recall his dreams - and he breaks up w/ Polly and returns to his wife and son; she's in despair, but at end of chapter gets a letter from her father saying her parents are separating and he wants to move in w/ her. In ch 12 we get to know this eccentric father - who has significant mental issues of his own, which actually threaten Polly's life and he goes an spending sprees during his episodes of mania. But lo and behold, Polly - taken to selling her own blood to make ends meet! - discusses father's case w/ a doctor she knows from work and she and doc fall in love - and he pledges to take her father in to live w/ them when then set up a new apt. So on the bright side - not all of the men in this novel are narcissistic creeps (most are), but on the down side: Can that relationship really endure, or will the father and his obsessions  intrude on the life of the newlyweds? Both Ch's 11 and 12 are full of wit and insight, especially during the long discussions and Polly's troubled contemplation about mental illness and psychotherapy: Like many, when she hears of a symptom she thinks she's got the malady, and like many, including her husband to be, she ponders the efficacy of traditional psychoanalysis. One suspects MMcM is settling some scores here!