The Doll's House

‘This disassociation, can it be cured?’ Harry sat upright in his chair.

Kate spoke as gently as she could: ‘Harry, we all have the ability to disassociate. It’s part of our survival mechanism as human beings. Disassociation allows us to disconnect from our feelings. It’s not unusual for a person who has experienced the trauma of a car crash to say that they almost felt someone else was going through it. But it doesn’t have to be something traumatic for us to disassociate.’ Kate looked to the others. ‘I’m sure you all watch movies on television.’ They each nodded. ‘Well, disassociation can happen there too. What was the last movie you saw, Mary Louise?’

‘Taken – the one with Liam Neeson.’

‘Where his daughter goes missing?’

‘That’s right.’

‘Mary Louise, that’s a great example. Can I ask you a couple of questions about it?’

They stared at Kate as if she had gone temporarily insane, but Mary Louise gave a tentative ‘Yes.’

‘Did you watch the movie at home?’

‘Yes, with Harry last Friday night. We got in pizza.’

‘Did you have the lights down low?’

‘Yeah.’ This time Harry got in on things.

‘You were awake, alert and comfortable?’

Mary Louise frowned. ‘Yes, Harry and I were finished work for the week. We were relaxed and very comfortable.’

Harry nodded in agreement.

‘During the time you were watching the film, were you conscious of each other at all times?’

‘I knew Mary Louise was there, if that’s what you mean,’ Harry said.

‘But you were thinking about the movie rather than her?’

‘I suppose.’ It was Harry’s turn to frown.

‘Harry, can you remember eating each slice of pizza?’

‘No. I wasn’t thinking about it, just eating it.’

‘I can’t remember either.’ Mary Louise was quick to support her husband.

‘After the two of you got settled into the movie, were you thinking about other things? What happened at work or anything like that?’

They looked at each other before giving a simultaneous ‘No.’

‘Were you concerned for the girl’s welfare, the girl who was abducted in the movie?’

Again they answered together: ‘Yes.’

‘When Liam Neeson or, rather, the fictional character he was playing was running, driving fast or physically attacking the people he thought were involved with the abduction, did you feel his emotion?’

‘I suppose so,’ Mary Louise responded.

‘I wanted to kill the bastards,’ Harry emphatically declared.

‘Was your heart racing, Mary Louise?’

She stared at Kate. ‘At some points, yes.’

‘Even though in reality Liam Neeson’s daughter wasn’t taken, the character that Liam Neeson played didn’t exist, and all of them, including the actress in the role of his fictional daughter, were simply making a movie, you were nevertheless concerned for their safety?’

Neither Harry nor Mary Louise replied, so Kate continued: ‘Both of you disassociated from reality. You don’t remember eating each slice of pizza individually, yet you ate them. You forgot about your reality, lost your grasp on it, and for most of the period of watching the movie, you were no longer worried about work, or thought in any depth about each other.’

‘I fail to understand, Kate, what this has to do with Imogen.’

‘Mary Louise, when you and Harry watched the movie, you took the part of your consciousness that worries about work problems and other “real things” and separated it from your imaginative part. The imaginative part became dominant. You disassociated from one part of your consciousness for another.’

‘But when the film was over, I got up. I put the kettle on. I came back to reality.’

‘I know you did, Harry. But you acknowledge that for a period you left real events, even the simple act of eating a number of individual slices of pizza.’

‘I suppose I did.’

‘The same way you can’t remember eating each individual slice, Imogen can’t remember certain events. And it’s not because she’s watching movies, it’s because at some point or points in the past, her mind opted out from the here and now. She disassociated herself from real events.’

‘It still happens, Kate.’ The concern was back in Mary Louise’s voice.

‘I know it does, but Imogen is making progress. She’s beginning to remember. She won’t always get it right. Memory is fragmented. Sometimes it will get mixed up with other things, but she is remembering, and that is what’s important.’ Kate paused again. ‘There is one other thing I would like you all to think about.’

‘What’s that?’ asked Jilly, keen to be involved.