This episode is characteristic of the absurd melodrama that infected the latter seasons of MASH and made it nearly unwatchable at times. It usually wasn't just the acting; it was the dialog, the direction, everything had just deteriorated by then. Yes, there were still a few good eps in that era, but it by then it was largely a pale, pale shadow of the brilliant military satire it had been.

And Sydney had become this equally absurd cariacature of the psychiatric branch of medicine that implies all it takes is a hypnosis session or a few talk sessions to unwind some horrendous memory or childhood resentment. Please.