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Marie Cardinal’s autobiographical novel, The Words to Say It (1983), follows her experience with psychoanalysis. She began this treatment in her 30s and went back to explore many things from her childhood, including the trauma and beauty she experienced as a child.

The novel begins in a quiet, dirty cul-de-sac in a Paris suburb. A woman named Marie Cardinal is there looking for help from someone who can diagnose her condition and cure it. She has been struggling with mental illnesses that have made her suicidal and unable to function normally. The author’s goal is to show the reader why she feels this way and what she does about it.

Marie is suffering from something called “The Thing,” a horrific, looming specter of chaos and agitation that she believes is causing the constant bleeding from her vagina. Doctors said it’s just a menstrual malady, but Marie insists that there’s more to it than that.

After a long period of illness and madness, Marie Kondo knew she needed to make some changes. She decided that her cure would be found in the office of a Parisian psychoanalyst, a man who never spoke during their sessions but instead asked her to focus on stories, words—what meaning she was making for herself. After the first session, miraculously, Marie stopped bleeding. She went back three times per week for an hour each time and continued this routine until “The Thing” had been cured.

Marie describes her childhood in Algeria. She was the only daughter of a wealthy, plantation-owning divorcée and devoted Catholic. Her mother ignored and distanced her from Marie, who was very lonely as a child because of it.

Marie’s mother lost one child before Marie was born, and she blamed her husband for that loss. Her mother also tried to abort Marie but failed. As a result of this memory, Marie dives into dreams and hallucinations in order to understand herself better. After therapy, she is able to move on with her life because she no longer hates herself as intensely as before. By the end of the novel, Marie isn’t entirely happy or whole; however, she doesn’t feel like dying anymore.

Marie Cardinal was born in Algeria in 1929. She studied philosophy and taught in several European cities before moving to Canada, where she became a novelist. Her first novel was published during the 1960s, but it wasn’t until 1972 that she gained fame with her second novel, The Key of the Door. Afterwards, she began acting onscreen as well as writing novels. She died in France in 2001 at age 72.