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JANINE: But you do.
CYNTHIA: I can't help it. But I've been going there more
and more often lately, and staying for longer and
longer. I think I might be going mad.
JANINE: You're not going mad. Retreating to a safe place
in your mind is a common response to intense
emotional or psychological trauma. What you've
got to do is realise that while it provides a
temporary imagined escape, the problem is still
there to be dealt with in reality when you come
back.
CYNTHIA: But it's not just in my mind. I don't know where
it is but I think I really go there.
JANINE: It only seems like that - your mind makes it
real to you. While you think you're there your body
lies unconscious until you come back from this
imaginary place. It's an escape, it's not a
solution to the problem.
CYNTHIA: I know what I'm saying must sound stupid, but...I
don't know how to explain it...you haven't been
there, you don't know what it's like.
JANINE: Cynthia, if you want to solve your problems you
must differentiate between what is real and what
is not. In reality, when you experience the
intensity of your particular troubles your
consciousness flees to this imaginary haven it has
created so it doesn't have to deal with the trauma
of reality. Physically you are still here, with
the rest of us, in whatever situation you were in
before you lost consciousness. Now, because you
won't tell me I can't begin to help you deal with
whatever it is that has caused this psychological
behaviour. Until you're ready to tell me the best
I can do is to help you realize that escaping to
this place in side your head is not going to help
solve your problems. Do you understand?
CYNTHIA: No. What about the boy? I didn't make him up. I
couldn't have. He says things I would never
say, I mean, he doesn't talk like you or me, or anyone
else I know. He teaches me things, things I
didn't know.
JANINE: It's not uncommon for the psyche to create a
protective father-like figure along with the
place. Sometimes the person believes it's Jesus
...or a guardian angel, sometimes, like in
your case, it's just a comforting stranger.
Everyone knows more than they realize they do.
The subconscious mind is an amazing
mechanism... You made him up.
