I like this comment as it reminds me how much of Utena is really a story told by the viewer. (spoilers to follow) It's not necessary to reference big things here- even the small detail of one person thinking the chamber that is so prominent in the black rose arc was like a confessional and me thinking it was like a a psychologist's office causes a big difference in how we will perceive the series. Confessionals after all are for confessing a sin, and psychologists are to cure your mind. The connotations are very different.

Another interesting point was how different one sees the series if you look to see if Anthy is manipulating events. My psychological bent causes me to think that many of the visuals we see are really metaphors, but someone else might take them literally. Even when I read a book straight, as I always do on the first reading, my mind tells part of the story for me. For example, I'm reading Beloved- and I am wondering about the 28 days- why the number of days in a menstrual cycle? Our lives and associations always make up part of what we get out of the story we are reading.