Psychiatrist. Psychologist. Therapist. Or life-threatening psychopath?
The actual word therapy (gr. therapeia) stands for care, healing treatment, supervision and service. Isn’t that the reason why we voluntarily choose to give a stranger the keys to our most private inner rooms? What’s most frightening is that the one who we believe will provide us with healing may very well be someone who wreaks havoc with our life, and in a worst case, is evil and delights in destroying us.
Ninety-nine years ago, the father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud wrote his famous essay Das Unheimliche (The Uncanny), which, in an ingenious way, illuminates how well-known and familiar objects and persons—even our own reflection in a mirror—have the capacity to appear in an absolutely terrifying way. The rise of the domestic thriller stems from that frightening thought that even our closest family can represent life-threatening danger, or our closest confident. And what better symbol of elastic domesticity in a psychological thriller than a therapist?
For most people, a therapist is someone who uses her knowledge and empathy to help. Someone who listens and assists us in clarifying areas in our lives, so we can move on with new insights. But to achieve this, mutual respect is required or the therapy will not work. The person seeking therapy must be willing to open themselves to topics they haven’t dealt with before; to be honest, to be vulnerable. The therapist, on the other hand, must earn the patient’s trust and have his or her well-being as priority number one.
Of course, a therapist is just a regular person—someone, who just like us, must deal with difficulties and adversities in her own life. But what if the therapist is not at all who we think? What if it is someone who manipulates, misleads and ultimately…kills?
Red Dragon (Thomas Harris, 1981)
Many have seen the two film adaptations made from this book, but not everyone has read it. My strong recommendation is: please do! Two families have been brutally murdered in a ritualistic way and the FBI fears he will soon kill again. Unfortunately, they have no clue who the killer might be since he leaves no trace at all, except strange bite marks, hence his moniker, “The Tooth Fairy.” Forensics expert Will Graham has just got himself together since he got seriously wounded—both physically and mentally—during his capture three years earlier of another serial killer, the notorious psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter. The doctor didn’t exactly adhere to the Hippocratic oath; not only did some of his more tedious patients end up dead, but portions of them ended up on his dinnerplate.
Will reluctantly takes on the case. And of course, he has to visit Lecter in prison for advice and guidance through the darkness. Lecter agrees, but his assistance comes with a very high price and Will and his family’s life is endangered.
This is the first time Dr. Lecter is introduced to us and I’m forever grateful to Thomas Harris for that! I have to have two of his books on this reading list.
The Silence of the Lambs (Thomas Harris, 1988)
A series of bestial murders have occurred, and the FBI is once again bewildered and without any clues to where to look for the killer, who due to his habit of skinning his victims, has been nicknamed Buffalo Bill. This time, however, it is not a seasoned and well experienced protagonist we follow. Clarice Starling is still a student at the FBI Department of Behavioral Research in Quantico, Virginia. She has never been out on a field mission but this doesn’t stop her boss Jack Crawford, who sends her away to interview Hannibal the Cannibal, our own Dr. Lecter. It has nothing at all to do with Buffalo Bill, Crawford assures her. But obviously it has, and against all odds Clarice and Dr. Lecter establish a unique form of trust between them where Lecter provides little clues in exchange for insight into Clarice’s life. Quid pro quo.
Shutter Island (Dennis Lehane, 2003)
This book is one of the most spectacular examples of how a skilled writer uses the psychological mechanisms Freud wrote about in Das Unheimliche. Teddy Daniels is a US Marshal and arrives at Shutter Island with his new partner Chuck Aule. Their mission is to find Rachel Solano, an escaped patient from Ashecliffe, the mental institution located on the island. One cryptic clue leads to another, and what at first looks like a straightforward crime scenario shifts into a nightmarish fever dream. Of course, nothing is what it seems. At all. And rarely has a character that is a therapist been used in such a genius manner. Teddy Daniel’s investigations lead him deeper into the darkness and when he finally finds answers to his questions, they are more terrifying than he could have ever imagined. Read this book! And if you’ve already done that, read it again!
The Hypnotist (Lars Kepler, 2009)
This is the first book to feature Detective Inspector Joona Linna. A family—a father, a mother and their daughter—has been brutally murdered in Tumba, Sweden. There is one surviving witness, the son, severely injured. When Joona Linna learns that there is yet another family member still alive, a big sister, he sets out to find her before the killer does. Additional conflict enters the story when Linna wants trauma expert Erik Maria Bark to hypnotize the boy to be able to find out what happened, despite Bark’s insistence to never hypnotize anyone again. When he breaks his promise, a terrifying chain of events is set in motion.
Before I Go to Sleep (S.J. Watson, 2011)
Christine Lucas wakes up without remembering who she is, where she is, or how she got there. Next to her lies a completely strange man. She panics, until he explains everything to her. His name is Ben and they are married. Several years ago, Christine was in a car accident and has since suffered from a serious form of memory loss. Every night, everything is erased, and every morning she must once again find out who she is.
Dr. Nasch contacts her, a friendly and helpful neuropsychologist who tries to help Christine remember. Slowly he guides Christine to new insights and small fragments of memories begin to emerge. She questions the story her husband has shared and confronts him. Ben explains that he has to conceal certain things to protect her. Her doubts grow as she learns certain truths, including that their son died. Is what he’s saying true or is he lying again? Who should she trust? Her husband or the psychologist?
The Girl on the Train (Paula Hawkins, 2015)
When Rachel Watson, a 32-year-old woman with alcoholic tendencies, rides the commuter train to and from work, she watches a house where a perfect couple lives and fantasizes about their wonderful lives. Then one day the woman disappears, and Rachel’s world falls apart. She is convinced that the woman was murdered or kidnapped. While she struggles with her own problems—alcohol and memory blackouts—she tries to find out what happened.
By using a therapist, the author communicates an unmistakable psych-vibe and Dr. Kamal Abdic is a reasonable voice in a book full of suspicion and misdirection. Like Before I go to sleep Hawkins plays with memory loss and how the familiar and the well-known hide scary truths.
The Marriage Pact (Michelle Richmond, 2017)
Alice is a successful lawyer and Jake a therapist and partner in a psychology practice. As newlyweds, they join an exclusive and mysterious club which promises its couples will never divorce. Signing The Pact seems the start to a perfect marriage. The rules are simple: give each other time and attention by always answering when your spouse calls, plan regularly get away-trips and so on.
At the same time, Jake takes on his first clients in marriage counseling. Alice and Jake are invited to parties, they meet new people within the club and everything seems fine—until one of them breaks the rules. Then, the couples realize The Pact is far more dangerous than they ever imagined. Jake’s own marriage is about to become his worst nightmare. But this time he has no advice, nor answers.
