The Institution and the Cure

Die, My Love

This flow follows the narrator's confinement, therapy and release from the psychiatric institution as the family tries to manage her madness.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

The Proposal of Treatment The Proposal of Treatment from "Die, My Love". The Proposal of Treatment Context The husband summons the narrator with the phrase come here, sit down, and tells her she needs treatment.

The Proposal of Treatment from "Die, My Love". The Proposal of Treatment Context The husband summons the narrator with the phrase come here, sit down, and tells her she needs treatment.

The Proposal of Treatment Context The husband summons the narrator with the phrase come here, sit down, and tells her she needs treatment. She understands the words as an ending, not a healing. Turn He describes a place full of sheets, white walls, pills and craft workshops. The narrator vomits her ten years as a couple over the table. Aftermath Despite the horror, she later asks him to marry her, and he agrees. The marriage continues, but the threat of confinement is now part of its architecture.

The Yellow Shorts The Yellow Shorts from "Die, My Love". The Yellow Shorts Context The narrator sits in the back seat in yellow shorts with a suitcase, practising crazy looks in the mirror.

The Yellow Shorts from "Die, My Love". The Yellow Shorts Context The narrator sits in the back seat in yellow shorts with a suitcase, practising crazy looks in the mirror.

The Yellow Shorts Context The narrator sits in the back seat in yellow shorts with a suitcase, practising crazy looks in the mirror. She imagines herself as Zelda Fitzgerald en route to Switzerland. Turn Her husband and son sing love me, love me, say that you love me, while she listens to Mozart. When they arrive, staff grab her arms and push her forward. Aftermath A hallway full of closed doors swallows her, and the engine carries her family away. The institution is framed as both a honeymoon and a prison.

The First Morning The First Morning from "Die, My Love". The First Morning Context The narrator wakes with her fingers hanging off the bed and a doctor's crooked eyeglasses above her.

The First Morning from "Die, My Love". The First Morning Context The narrator wakes with her fingers hanging off the bed and a doctor's crooked eyeglasses above her.

The First Morning Context The narrator wakes with her fingers hanging off the bed and a doctor's crooked eyeglasses above her. She has dreamt she left her baby asleep under acid rain. Turn The doctor tells her she is free to leave whenever she likes. She walks into the dining hall feeling alive, kisses cheeks and asks people their names. Aftermath She notices she has been shut away among men with shaved heads and tells herself she smells of testosterone. The institution is not the white nightmare she feared, but it is still a cage.

The Couples Session The Couples Session from "Die, My Love". The Couples Session Context A therapist brings the narrator and her husband together in an office with artificial grass and relaxing music.

The Couples Session from "Die, My Love". The Couples Session Context A therapist brings the narrator and her husband together in an office with artificial grass and relaxing music.

The Couples Session Context A therapist brings the narrator and her husband together in an office with artificial grass and relaxing music. The husband says he is in a permanent state of alert. Turn The narrator feels bored and says, I'm going to club you to death, then wonders how she reached that point. The therapist speaks of tolerance and mutual respect, but no one is listening. Aftermath She hugs her husband so hard she wrings out his guts, and he does not reject her. The session ends with a fragile, theatrical reconciliation.

The Grounded Week The Grounded Week from "Die, My Love". The Grounded Week Context The therapist tells the narrator that her husband wants her to stay another week. It is official, she thinks, she has been grounded.

The Grounded Week from "Die, My Love". The Grounded Week Context The therapist tells the narrator that her husband wants her to stay another week. It is official, she thinks, she has been grounded.

The Grounded Week Context The therapist tells the narrator that her husband wants her to stay another week. It is official, she thinks, she has been grounded. Turn She pretends to accept responsibility and rethinks her role as wife and mother. Then she runs out, leaps over demolition signs and imagines her husband and son slowly forgetting her. Aftermath The institution extends its hold over her life at the very moment she tries to escape it in fantasy. Her family is already learning to live without her.

Release and Reunion Release and Reunion from "Die, My Love". Release and Reunion Context The narrator is blindfolded at a going-away party, then the door opens and she sees her husband dressed up and her son in his…

Release and Reunion from "Die, My Love". Release and Reunion Context The narrator is blindfolded at a going-away party, then the door opens and she sees her husband dressed up and her son in his…

Release and Reunion Context The narrator is blindfolded at a going-away party, then the door opens and she sees her husband dressed up and her son in his football kit, holding hands. Turn They hug, and the son has more teeth, more hair and a bigger vocabulary. Her husband tells a joke: now you're finally out, we'll be able to live in peace. Aftermath They drive home with the roof open and the child raising his hands to the wind. The narrator carries into the house the reflection of the first knife she ever dreamt of.

early morning, before the journey to the institution

on the road to the institution

the morning after admission to the institution

during the narrator's stay at the institution

after the couples session, still inside the institution

after the institution, when the family comes to collect her