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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

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9 Fictional psychologists and psychological therapists: 8. By Blood by Ellen Ullman

18/8/2014

26 Comments

 
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Who can say they’ve never dreamt of being a fly on the wall, eavesdropping on the intimate exchanges between people who don’t even know we exist?  Such an opportunity presents itself to the unnamed narrator of this unusual and multi-layered novel when he rents a room in an office block right next to a psychotherapist in 1974 San Francisco.  A troubled, and troubling, university professor on enforced leave from his post, and veteran of decades of unsuccessful therapies, he is obsessively drawn to the unfolding story of the young woman to whom he refers as “my patient”.  Adopted as a baby, her journey to discover the identity of her birth mother takes her, via Israel, from affluent 1930s Berlin to the horrors of Bergen-Belsen.  As a reader, I also became engrossed in her tragic story but, in keeping with the parameters I’ve set myself in this series of reviews, I’ll now turn my attention away from the content to the process of its telling, packaged as it is within a series of therapeutic encounters over the course of around sixteen months.

This was one of the most credible fictional accounts of psychotherapy I’ve discovered so far.  Alongside the mind-blowing personal discoveries, were the sulks and silences, the tedium, the long hard graft for both patient and therapist in their search for the truth.  While some might find the fly-on-the-wall approach introduces an unnecessary distancing from the patient’s narrative, it works well as a way of exploring the process and rituals of therapy.  His observations, such as this on the Christmas break:

What other profession absents itself exactly at the moment when its services will be most needed, when patients are confronted by the absurdly neurotic idea that families should make them happy?  Would a medical doctor go on leave after a plane crash?  (p176)

bring a touch of humour to an otherwise serious novel.

With the scepticism engendered by his own disappointing therapies, the narrator has the right amount of insider knowledge to steer the uninitiated reader through the process.  He is alert to the therapist’s limitations in a way that highlights the complexity of the therapeutic task, yet blind to the extent of his personal overidentification with the patient.  Experiencing vicarious terror, he leaps into grandiose rescuing mode, failing to appreciate that the therapeutic role is more to bear witness than to intervene:

And finally I could bear no longer the patient’s suffering.  I could not stand this death-in-life.  She was to be my icon, my champion.  And the more mired she became in the muck into which Dr Schussler had shucked her, the more determined I became to save her.  She would not abandon her search; the doctor could not guide her.  Now only I could help. (p.193)

Despite the narrator’s critical stance towards the therapist, he failed to pick up on a few things that caused me some concern: her apparent desire to hug the patient after a particularly difficult session (p82); her occasional attempts to control the content, including pushing the patient to search for her adoptive mother; her offer of an extra evening session when things got more interesting (p111).  And he seemed unaware that therapists should be receiving supervision as routine, and not only for those cases which arouse difficult feelings (the countertransference) as was certainly the case for this therapist when the patient’s story began to reverberate with her own dark history.  After finishing the novel, I also began to question the artifice by which the narrator is able to listen in.  If you’ve ever had the bad luck to be allocated a hotel room with an adjoining door to another bedroom (albeit a locked door), you’ll appreciate this isn’t the ideal way to put an anxious individual at their ease.  I’ve never come across the white noise machine Dr Schussler used to mask the voices of her other patients, but imagine it would be a significant impediment to sharing one’s private thoughts.  But if you can set that to one side long enough to read the novel, as I did, it’s certainly an intriguing read, not just about the therapy but about the enigma of identity and how much or how little is bequeathed by our parents.

Thanks to Susan Osborne of A Life in Books for bringing this novel to my attention via Naomi Frisby’s review on The Writes of Woman.

Next in this series I’ll be picking apart The Delivery Room by Sylvia Brownrigg.

Have you read any other novels with a similar fly-on-the-wall narrator?  Do you think such a frame would enhance or detract from your appreciation of the central story?
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
26 Comments
Quanie Miller link
18/8/2014 11:21:26 am

I don't think I've read a book of this type but it looks rather interesting. Adding it to my TBR list.

Reply
Annecdotist
18/8/2014 11:38:14 am

That's good, hope you enjoy it.

Reply
Derbhile Dromey link
19/8/2014 01:47:14 am

Sounds like an intriguing book, with a very realistic view of hte psychotherapy process. Well-crafted review too.

Reply
Annecdotist
19/8/2014 05:40:25 am

It's rather like a Russian doll with stories within stories as we get deeper into the process.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
19/8/2014 06:15:51 am

I love reading this series of reviews. While it is doubtful I will ever get to read any more of them (I did read Stephen Grosz) I am always fascinated by your unfolding of the content and revelations re the style and point if view. This one sounds absorbing and I wish I had the time that would enable my adding it to my reading list. I am sure I would enjoy it.

Reply
Norah Colvin
19/8/2014 06:20:56 am

Sorry. Didn't mean to submit - was trying to edit point if view to of view! I also wanted to add that being a 'fly on the wall' at times seems an attractive proposition, but in reality I think sometimes we may find out things we would rather not know!

Reply
Annecdotist
19/8/2014 08:25:12 am

No problem, Norah. Don't think I'd have noticed "if view" if you hadn't said.
I'm glad not having time to read these books doesn't put you off reading my reviews. It's certainly my aim to make them into something you can engage with, rather than straight selling or dissing the book.
And you're right, not such a good idea to tune into other people talking about you. I have a very painful memory of a shack/guesthouse with plywood walls.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
22/8/2014 03:02:27 am

Now that's a story I'd like to read!

Annecdotist
22/8/2014 03:49:55 am

Mmm, I'd have to work on it. The reality wasn't all interesting. Still, maybe it would work as one of Charli's prompts?

Geoff link
19/8/2014 07:41:14 am

Not sure this is a book for me but I love your unpicking of the process and its flaws within a narrative that has its own agenda and so, sometimes, needs to slip the truth of the real process. Makes me conscious that, in some of what I've written I indulge myself in other people's jobs, religions and worlds with the little research that in truth is all you can do without actually steeping yourself in the job/religion/world. No doubt I'm making some serious mistakes through ignorance and, were I so foolish as to publish, there is the equivalent of you out there ready, forensically to pick it to bits!

Reply
Annecdotist
19/8/2014 08:32:30 am

Don't mean to scare you, Geoff, and I'm sure we all make mistakes when writing about something from the outside. One thing about this series though is that I do think (perhaps more difficult in this particular case) showing a therapist in conversation with a supervisor would be a great method of enhancing the plot and character development.
Also, with there still been some stigma about therapy – or at least scepticism and reluctance – I think some portrayals in fiction risk further putting people off in real life. I started this because I was horrified that in The Rapture the therapist sat reading confidential case records in a cafe when in real life she'd have been unlikely to get them out of the hospital (it was a secure unit).
But I will admit that in some of these posts I can be a bit schoolmarmish (apologies to Norah for that old-fashioned stereotype – there you go, I wouldn't be able to get away with writing about a teacher, although I'm sure I have).

Reply
Sarah link
19/8/2014 05:02:15 pm

I can't think of a single book I've read with a narrator like this. Fascinating. And your description is bringing out a fly-on-the-wall feeling here... ;-)

Reply
Sarah
19/8/2014 05:03:49 pm

P.S. Laughed out loud at the Christmas passage: "Would a medical doctor go on leave after a plane crash?"

Reply
Annecdotist
20/8/2014 03:10:18 am

Thanks, Sarah, and glad you liked the quote. Maybe I should revive it for a Christmas blog post.

Charli Mills
19/8/2014 07:24:08 pm

It's a fine line between writing about credible therapy, yet using it as a vehicle to move the story along. I suppose that is where "poetic license" enters. It's interesting that you've committed to reviewing psychology books, yet can focus on process and credibility both. Another great review!

Reply
Annecdotist
20/8/2014 03:14:04 am

Thanks, Charli, and I agree we need to allow for poetic licence. But we also need to create a credible setting. And my overall feeling is that several of these writers miss out on an opportunity to enhance both plot and character through their (presumed) unawareness of a vital aspect of the therapeutic process.

Reply
Charli Mills
20/8/2014 12:01:03 pm

Good points about a credible setting and opportunity to use the therapeutic process as delivery for the story. The Hub served in the Army and is also keen on military history. Anytime we go to see a "war" movie he grumbles about things like, "wrong sound for the helicopters or that gun wasn't used in that era by that division." Seems like little details but it ruins the credibility for him.

Thinking in terms of the writing process, how would you suggest that an author research therapeutic process? Really, it could be applied to any professional setting. I've had to reach out for scientific research on my novel and I've found that some people are great about talking to me and others not so much.

Annecdotist
21/8/2014 04:30:41 am

I had to smile at the thought of you and your husband watching a film together. Mine is much less knowledgeable about the military but has that basic boy background regarding weapons etc as well as lots of experience as a nurse. So when I'm going "oh know he's got himself shot", he's complaining about the wrong amount of blood bubbling out of the wound.
Good question about how do we research these things and no easy answer but I'm planning to do some kind of summary once I've posted the 9th in this series, so I'll give it some thought.

Charli Mills
21/8/2014 05:15:38 pm

Oh, that's funny! Then you know what a couple's date to the movies is going to entail! :-)

I look forward to your summary. It will be helpful for writers considering other areas, too.

Annecdotist
22/8/2014 03:51:37 am

Thanks for helping me see the need. Not sure I'll be able to manage to make it relevant to other professions, though. That might be a job for my lively discussants.

Lori Schafer link
20/8/2014 09:57:18 pm

Gosh, I know I read a book with a very similar premise some years ago, but I'll be darned if I remember what it was called. The narrator, as I recall, was able to listen to the psychotherapy sessions via a vent or something of that sort. Anyway, in reading it, I found myself far more intrigued by the narrator than by the doctor and patient. What motivates someone to devote their time to doing something like that? And I agree with Norah - I think you would learn a lot you didn't really want to know!

Reply
Annecdotist
21/8/2014 04:37:23 am

Interesting, Lori, and do let me know if you remember that title.
The narrator in By Blood was also an intriguing character and a rather creepy one at that. We could envisage his voyeuristic tendencies as an extreme form of our own curiosity about other people's secrets, as well as running in parallel with those of the therapist (especially this one who badgered the patient into investigating her own origins).

Reply
Paula link
29/8/2014 01:10:06 pm

Perhaps I read too quickly, Anne, but i am a little confused. If the doctor uses a white noise machine to mask the voice of her patients, how can the narrator being a fly on the wall and overhear everything? Is this patient the only one for which she doesn't use it for some reason?

Reply
Annecdotist
30/8/2014 09:13:51 am

My mistake, not yours, Paula. Apologies for the confusion. The therapist used the noise machine with most of her patients apart from this particular one who had asked it to be turned off and she found it disturbing.
Well spotted, ever fancied being an editor?
And thanks for reading.

Reply
Paula link
30/8/2014 09:41:06 am

I thought that might be it, as you said "other" patients, but wasn't quite sure. I do enough editing in the day job, thank you; all those grant proposals that use the same boilerplate but require different word limits. Of course by the time you are done, it's difficult to read what you have fresh, and someone else has to read it to see what you've left out or duplicated by accident moving from one text box to another. ;-)

Annecdotist
30/8/2014 09:58:56 am

Yeah, one does need to be careful shuffling text from one document to another. I have a word document with several different versions of my bio for short story submissions. Once sent the whole document of well over 1000 words. They must've thought I was a real egotist.




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