alex michaelides the maidens chapter sampler

That abuse was something else I wanted to explore in The Maidens: how toxic patriarchy can dominate and destroy these young women’s lives.

So I think groups are fascinating, but highly dangerous and prone to abuse. So if we are trying to protect our father, or protect ourselves from certain knowledge about our father, or simply are obedient good little children who are programmed to obey, we will have a very submissive relationship to the group. We make our particular group into our parent. The group was stagnant and toxic.Īnd I began to see that groups are a perfect way to intimidate and unconsciously dominate vulnerable people. Several of his patients seemed unable to leave the group: They had been with him in this group for twenty years.

I realized that my therapist, the group analyst, was in fact rather narcissistic and sadistic, and prone to bullying the most vulnerable members of the group. The second group was a major reason why I quit my psychotherapy training. I had two different bouts of group therapy: a successful and positive one for a couple of years and then another one for about a year or so. I think that when groups work well, they can be incredibly healing. Likewise, in The Maidens, Marianna is a group therapist, as I know a fair bit about group therapy. So I thought how well I know psychotherapists and psychiatric units, and decided to make my detective into a psychotherapist. I knew I needed a detective, but I didn’t know anything about detectives and didn’t want to do all the research. When I first decided to write The Silent Patient, I thought the smart thing to do would be to set the novel in a world I knew well. What drew you back to these themes while writing The Maidens ? Celadon Books talked with Michaelides about what draws him back to Greek mythology, his writing process during the lockdown, and the age-old classic: murder.Ĭongratulations on an amazing second novel! The Maidens contains some of the key elements that continue to draw readers to The Silent Patient - Greek mythology, therapy, and a psychologist at the center of a murder mystery. Author of the wildly successful #1 New York Times bestselling The Silent Patient Alex Michaelides is back with this summer's highly anticipated The Maidens.

Alex michaelides the maidens chapter sampler