The book The psychologist (published in Spanish in 2020) is a novel by Norwegian researcher and psychologist Helene Flood. The author, internationally recognized for her studies on violence and post-traumatic stress, used her experience as a therapist to create this domestic Black Nordic.
As your name might imply, Therapist —Original name in Norwegian— is a thriller psychological where deception is a constant element. In fact, the text contains a very addictive plot that conveys the implicit (and explicit, at times) feeling that everyone is lying. For this reason, the protagonist of the story cannot trust anyone ... not even her own memories
About the author
Helene Flood Aakvaag (Norway, 1982) is a doctor in psychology graduated from the University of Oslo. At the moment, serves as a senior researcher at the Norwegian Knowledge Center on Violence and Traumatic Stress (NKVTS).
In the aforementioned scientific institution, He completed his doctoral thesis, which analyzes the consequences of violence in cases of re-victimization and post-traumatic guilt. These themes are clearly described in the development of the book The psychologist, whose development demonstrates the functioning and fragility of human memory.
Literary works
Apart from her many articles and scientific publications, Helene Flood has to his credit two literary releases prior to The psychologist. These are the youth novel Elevator with Houdini (2008) and popular science text Hello, shame (2018). Now, without a doubt, the success of Therapist seems to predict a promising future as a writer of crime fiction.
Likewise, the development of The psychologist has been compared by critics to other best-selling titles from domestic noir. Among them, Gone girl (2012) by Gillian Flynn, The silent wife (2013) by ASA Harrison and The girl on the train (2015) by Paula Hawkins. Like the books mentioned, an adaptation to the big screen of The psychologist (the rights have been purchased by Sony).
By the way, what is domestic noir?
It's a term coined (according to most sources) by Julia Crouch in 2013. This is defined as a variant of crime or mystery fiction, in which its protagonists are "home investigators" or "casual detectives." Although it is a subgenre in vogue today, it was actually widely used by authors such as Agatha Christie or Stephen King.
Argument and summary of The psychologist
Approach
Sara's husband, Sigurd, leaves her an audio note just after arriving at a country cabin where he was going to spend a weekend. He is supposed to meet some friends there, however, none of them have seen him and they decide to warn Sara about the situation.
Then, the questions begin to fly over the air, especially those related to the voice message. "Why don't you come?" Is a persistent question in the mind of Sara. Eventually, the police classify her as the main suspect in the disappearance of Sigurd while she believes her husband is lying.
Development
As the case of her husband's disappearance progresses, Sara's consultation also evolves. There, the protagonist attends and applies therapies to people (adolescents, mainly) with anxiety, depression and self-esteem disorders. Even, the office is one more character, since the arrangement of the objects present there ends up being crucial for the memories of the psychologist.
Later, when Sigurd appears dead, Sara's greatest fears are unleashed. At that moment, the doctor is harassed by her own knowledge. Since she is familiar with the way in which the brain uses lying as a form of self-protection ... If there is a very protected secret, it is due to the consequences of uncovering it.
Maddened by the memories
As events draw to a close, Sara's distrust progressively grows to unhealthy levels.. As a result, she feels insecure about her patients, her husband's words and, what is worse, his memories… Deep down, Sara knows that memory can fill in with falsehoods the evocations that she considers incoherent.
Analysis of The psychologist
Context
The psychologist is a Novelty very in keeping with the times of domestic confinement experienced in many countries of the world from 2020. However, it is important to note that, although the book was published that year, its launch occurred just before the health situation was triggered.
Style
The parallels between Sara, the protagonist of the book, and Helene Flood are very palpable (both are psychologists). In addition, the first-person narration plus the scientific mastery of the topics explored contributes to reinforcing that impression. Moreover, it seems that the events described correspond directly to the author's real experiences.
That is real?
The drama lived by Sara, despite being completely fictional in nature, has a scientific foundation widely studied by Helene Flood. Basically the doctor ends up cornering the reader in a feeling of absolute mistrust, justified? The reason: science has shown how fragile human memory is in traumatic circumstances.
About, Flood stated in an interview for El Periodico (2020): “Sometimes we are very sure of a memory but it does not mean that it is trueWe often reconstruct it to make our history coherent, and our memory easily erases what contradicts it. It is not clear that we should trust our memory ”.
The lie as a narrative thread
Flood uses a simple prose that contains interleaved dialogue and some jumps in time. Said analepsis (flashbacks) are essentially memories of Sigurd (when they met, the development of their relationship and their evolution to the present). Of course, the distinctive touch of the novel is the detailed exploration of the psychological pictures of the characters.
At that point, the lie is the element that obviously most intrigues the author, who scientifically supports his argument with the following phrase: “There are many ways of lying, the white lie, lying to protect oneself for having done something bad or frowned upon, self-deception, lying for what is believed to be a good motive when in fact it is doing a lot of damage ”.