Playwright Aron Eli Coleite has endeavored to write a serious play about the efficacy of psychology., The Family Room, now at the ArcLight Theatre, And while much of the piece works, the play eventually overreaches in its final scenes and loses much of its hard-won credibility

At the work's center is David (Tyler Lea), the 15-year-old son of two married psychologists. The boy, utterly miserable and deeply troubled, doesn't believe that anyone ever gets well, using himself as Exhibit A. His actions -- part teenage rebellion, part cry for help -- are at the epicenter of a downward spiral that puts his father, Dr. Campbell (David M. Pincus) and mother, Dr. Tate-Campbell (Nancy Stone) to the test. But they're not the only one's tested; so are all of their psychologists!

In the early scenes of the play there is a commendable elegance in the combination of Coleite's writing and Gwenyth Reitz's direction as each member of the family circulates through Jian Jung's cleverly conceived set design to meet and talk with their individual therapist.

In a touch that is equally circular, even the family's therapists are therapists for each other. For example, the young female therapist trying to help David, is also the therapist for the therapist of David's mother - got that? If it all sounds rather incestuous, well, it's supposed to.

Happily, the psycho-babble is kept to a relative minimum, and when it is used, it is often undercut with humor. And if the characters often take themselves too seriously, the playwright, to his credit, does not take them as seriously as they take themselves. But while he finds humor in his characters, it is in exposing their failings that the play finds its poignancy.

It may be no surprise that all of the psychologists in the play are people who were drawn to their profession in order to solve their own emotional problems. But the grace note is that they are all trying to make life for their patients more bearable in the bargain. And from what we see in the play, they finally do provide some relief and emotional salve for their patients.

Unfortunately, when all of the characters come together in the end in a sort of psycho shoot-out at the OK Corral, there is something fundamentally false about this plot device. So, too, is the resolution of a plot-device romance between David and one of his father's patient's.

Although the play stumbles, it is not the fault of the actors, all seven of them well cast for their roles and giving engaging performances. In particular, Jonathan Tindle as Dr. Schwartz, gives a sharp-edged and fully realized performance as a pill-popping psychologist who, for all his bitter sarcasm, succeeds at having a positive impact on others.