Doctor, heal thyself

Dr. Jennifer Melfi would probably understand the letdown feeling, but Lorraine Bracco is having a little trouble with it all.

“Sopranos” fans left as cold as Jim “Johnny Cakes” by the show’s cliffhanger-free season finale should buck up, says the 51-year-old actress.

David Chase, creator of the highly acclaimed HBO series, “has been pretty consistent about following a different path of what we would expect. That’s part of his brilliance,” said the Brooklyn-born former fashion model by phone from New York City; she’s in town this week to promote her newly released memoir, “On the Couch.”

Still, as her book makes clear, Bracco aspires to be more like the linchpin character she plays on what is widely regarded as one of the finest shows in television history.

In a nod to the grumbling over the sixth season ender, which aired this month, Bracco says it was originally meant to be a middle episode in the show’s final season. Instead, the one-time cohesive package was split into two seasons, and “Sopranos” fans will now have to wait until January for the final eight installments.

“The memoir, in which each chapter opens with a sage Melfi quote, exposes an initial divide between character and performer that is surprisingly stark, especially to those who don’t follow celebrity tabloids. When filming began on the pilot for “The Sopranos” in 1997, Bracco was a long way from the smart, sexy and confident psychiatrist she was to portray.

An intensely bitter breakup and child custody dispute with actor Harvey Keitel and a subsequent divorce from actor Edward James Olmos left her bankrupt, financially and emotionally. Few details are spared in this wrenching personal account, which includes alleged drug binges by Keitel and what she suggests are spurious accusations of Olmos molesting the daughter of a family friend.

So by the time she landed the role of Melfi, whose treatment of mob boss Tony Soprano forms the show’s psychological and moral backbone, Bracco was grappling with deep depression. Shortly after that, she sought professional counseling and was prescribed antidepressants.

Actually, it took portraying Melfi -- after turning down offers to play Tony’s wife, Carmela -- for Bracco to fully realize her darkened mood.

“After decades of such hardships and working hard and praying to catch a break and then the break comes, I had to ask myself, ‘Why am I not jumping for joy?’ ” said Bracco, who received an Oscar nomination for her role as a mobster’s wife in 1990’s “Goodfellas.” “I realized I was going on, living life, but without any joy.”

Her bout with depression made Bracco determined to help others. Her message -- “If I can do it, you can do it too” -- motivated what turned out to be a painful writing process.

“People would come up to me at a Yankee game or the subway and say, ‘Dr. Melfi, I wish I had a psychiatrist like you.’ People are suffering, and it breaks my heart. They whisper to me, ‘I’m on medication,’ and I would say, ‘Why are you whispering?’ ” she said. “I think a lot of people are depressed, and they don’t know it. It’s like a low-grade fever. We’ve been told to buck up and just do it, and sometimes that’s not possible.”

Bracco continues to be amazed at the cultural influence of the HBO series and her character in particular. When she was invited to address the American Psychoanalytic Assn. in 2001, she joked that its members must be crazy. Therapists told her that twice as many men sought therapy after “The Sopranos” began airing.

“Isn’t Tony the epitome of a man?” asked Bracco, partly in jest. “He does what he wants, eats what he wants .... and if he can get past the stigma of therapy, surely other men can too.”

With “The Sopranos” nearing its end, Bracco won’t say -- or doesn’t know -- how the show will end. Fans and critics predicting a blood bath, given the relatively bloodless ending to Season 6, may be wrong, at least when it comes to Tony. Yes, he’s a psycho killer, Bracco said, but there’s still hope -- his panic attacks seem under control, the shock of his near-death experience hasn’t left him yet, and he turned down a chance to sleep with a beautiful real estate agent played by Julianna Margulies.

“I thought when Melfi turned around and said, ‘You don’t have to eat every plate of rigatoni and you don’t have to [make love] to every girl,’ that was just great,” said Bracco. “It gives him something to think about.”

So where is the series finale headed?

“Every time I try to figure out where David could go with the story, I’m always wrong. I really have no idea,” said Bracco.

*

Bracco is scheduled to sign copies of her new book at Barnes & Nobles at the Grove in Los Angeles at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and at Book Soup in West Hollywood at 7 p.m. Thursday.