Mental/Psychological Disorder Patients - Biography, Mental Health Services & Personnel, Psychotherapy
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Overview
At a New York psychiatric facility, a young intern, Martin Obler, is assigned his first patient, Moira, a beautiful, sensitive policewoman. Three weeks before, during a bank robbery, Moira froze. The robber escaped as she stood staring down at his revolver lying on the pavement. When she finally was able to bend down to retrieve the gun, excruciating pain shot through her back. The pain continued unabated. An examination disclosed no physical cause. Doctors and her superiors called her condition psychosomatic. If Moira wanted to keep her job, she would have to enter therapy. It soon became apparent to Obler that Moira's immediate distress is only part of much darker forces that plague her. In therapy sessions, several personalities violently emerge revealing the demons of her past. Obler, who fights demons of his own, feels compassion for her plight. But he is reprimanded for his sympathetic approach by his supervisor, the famed, charismatic Dr. Mardoff. Mardoff insists Moira be handled by harsh methods. Denying that Moira has multiple personalities, he belittles her illness, brands her a "hysteric," and characterizes her as a malingering, sexually manipulative woman. Intern, patient, and doctor form a complex triangle of innocence, madness, and evil. As the power-driven psychiatrist begins to manipulate Moira's treatment to his own deadly ends, Obler is faced with making traumatic decisions. They will not only affect his immediate career, but also the rest of his life - and the fragile existence of his patient, Moira.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
In this psychological horror story both the patient, Moira (a young policewoman afflicted with multi-personalities disorder), and Obler (a clinical psychology intern in New York City), are manipulated by Obler's superior, a malevolent psychiatrist. Through composites, flashbacks, jargon and the ``adding or altering of scenes when necessary,'' Obler plumbs the trio's neuroses, which he attributes to their abusive families and marital and career problems. He gives protracted accounts of their professional and personal relationships, concluding with Moira's observation--shortly before she committed suicide--that ``there's little difference between victim and victimizer--both are looking to feel needed and wanted.'' 10,000 first printing. (Mar.)William Beatty
Moira, a young policewoman, becomes the patient of psychotherapy intern Martin Obler. During their many sessions, described in detail, they learn that Moira was sexually abused by her father and an uncle and that she suffers from multiple-personality disturbance. Moira's father and brothers were also policemen, and an overbearing family atmosphere featured cruelty to her, favoritism for the other children. Meanwhile, we learn that Obler's parents were first-generation immigrants, withdrawn and confused by their new country. Interlarding the clinical revelations are lengthy Oblerian musings on interpreting the previous session, planning cleverly for the next, and, above all, dealing with the evil Mardoff, Obler's psychotherapy supervisor. Life for all becomes even more complicated when Mardoff seduces Moira and takes her as his patient. Eventually in this true story told in the manner of fiction, Moira shoots herself, her only way out of a destroyed and hopeless life.Book Details
Published
February 1, 1993
Publisher
Far Hills, N.J. : New Horizon Press, c1993.
Pages
320
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780882821207