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As I read the story of Maud a character came to my mind; The Poor Little Rich Girl. Originally a 1913 Broadway play, in 1917 an eponymous silent movie came out. Gwendolyn is a child born to privilege, but neglected and forgotten by her parents she finds escape in fantasy and illusion. One day a careless nanny overdoses her with medicine and Gwendolyn's ensuing illness is what finally gets her parents' attention as she hovers between life and death. In her hazed delirium, Gwendolyn is able to conjure up a world of lonely lost children and her parents are finally forced to confront their selfish behaviour and consider the consequences of their careless parenting.
Maud too is a young woman apparently born to privilege (there was family money behind her), but unable to find emotional sustenance or connection with real people. Unlike little Gwendolyn (or maybe a grown-up Gwendolyn might have done so too), Maud's imaginative capacity has come to life in the shape of her writing. Maud has a book contract with a prominent publisher and part-time work too. Maud with a pen, keyboard or passport it seems is an imaginative, able person, capable of much, including presenting herself professionally, being punctual and meeting deadlines. And yet … the therapist's experience of her seems almost the opposite of this within the limits of the excerpt of the particular session we are given.
From the beginning, I wondered and continued to wonder: where are the parents, and how did Maud end up here? Despite the regular contact she has with them by phone, they seem completely absent and almost never to have existed—two lines are given to mother, father and a family described as ‘unremarkable’. This feels ambiguous given what the preceding paragraph has told us.
Just before treatment, Maud too had hovered between life and death after a suicide attempt. The intense therapy is suggested by her outpatient psychiatrist. Although both a psychiatrist and therapist are involved with Maud, and then t