Kelsie Christensen asked Mary Beth Keane:

Thank you so much for your accurate representation of mental illness. It’s never explicitly stated which exact mental illness the mother has, and it seems she has many, rather than just one specific kind. Is there any reason for that? Such a great book by the way!

Mary Beth Keane This was the part of the book I researched most. I was reluctant to pin one diagnosis to Anne because the same diagnosis in one hundred people looks different in all one hundred of those people, and readers are so protective of their own experiences (as they should be; as I am, too). Also, between the 1970s and the present day, the names for things changed, and symptoms that we think of as belonging to one illness begin showing up in multiple columns. Paranoia, for example (something Anne struggled with) shows up in the pathology for a whole host of psychiatric disorders. I didn't want readers to focus on a specific disease and begin matching up what they know about it with how it manifests in Anne.

flag