Defective copy (novel)
Sarah Kuttner's debut novel, published in 2009, is the defective copy . The themes of the novel are the depression and relationship problems of the protagonist of the book, Karo Herrmann.
content
After Karo Herrmann lost her job and a longstanding relationship with her boyfriend Philipp ended, she suffered a nervous breakdown . Because of her nocturnal anxiety and frequent crying fits, she seeks a psychotherapist. The therapist recognizes the root of her anxiety states in her handling of emotional conflicts and childhood trauma and gives her no hope of a short-term successful therapy.
The two agree to hold regular sessions at which Karo can report on her progress and get further therapeutic support. After a violent fear attack at night, Karo takes refuge in her mother, who takes her in lovingly. On the advice of her mother, she seeks out a psychiatrist who does not diagnose typical depression, but only "depressive moods", and prescribes her an antidepressant .
Karo's psychological situation stabilized in the following months. She is supported by her friend Nelson. Nelson is in a stable couple relationship, he is not considered by Karo as a possible partner. When the attempt to revive the relationship with Philipp fails and Karos lovesickness subsides, she meets David at a party. The flirtation turns into a passionate romance, but David easily makes it clear to her that he is not interested in a long-term relationship. However, Karo is in love with him and both let their affair go on for the time being. As the meetings get more complicated and David's attitude towards Karo remains vague, Karo ends the relationship.
Karo surprisingly gets a new job: she and a colleague are supposed to prepare and host the annual celebration of a children's television station. The two get along well and get closer to each other. Max ends a long relationship. The anniversary celebration is a success for both of them, they spend the night exhausted in Karo's apartment, but only the following morning does a passionate love encounter take place.
After nine months of taking the tablets, Karo stopped taking her antidepressants. In the relationship with Max she only sees an affair, while Max holds on to her and accompanies her caringly in the difficult time without pills. One day before leaving for a short trip to Mallorca, Karo had a panic attack in her apartment. The uncontrollable fear returns, but she does not want to take tablets. She considers herself strong enough to get through the crisis on her own. The short vacation is calm and relaxed, there are no further incidents, but after returning there is another panic attack and this time Karo takes a strong dose.
Since her psychiatrist is away, she makes an appointment with her representative, who diagnoses Karo with severe depression and advises her to take psychotropic drugs on a long-term basis. Karo resists and her psychiatrist asks why people with mental health problems do not seek medical help in the same way as they do with high blood pressure or heart problems, where the prescribed medicine is not questioned. He sees signs of depression in Karos' frequent fits of crying. He attested that his patient had a certain inability to “feel herself” so that she did not even notice her own depression. Karo suspects sexual abuse by a family member, beatings and little love from an overwhelmed and presumably depressed mother and a father whose demands she was never able to meet as causes for a possible trauma in her childhood.
Karo leaves the practice with a new recipe and the advice to stop brooding and “kitchen table psychology”. The psychiatrist recommends that she come to terms with her current situation. Karo accepts the recommendation, decides to take the medication again and to worry less. Max wants to support them, both are now ready for an "exclusive contract", i. H. for a permanent relationship.
subjects
The use of psychotropic drugs as a last resort for severe depression is an important topic in this novel: Apparently favorable conditions in Karo's personal environment (caring mother, worried father, brotherly friend, competent psychotherapist and psychiatrist, intact circle of friends) do not change the need for one Medical treatment of the physical causes ("serotonin congestion", as Karo describes it in her case) of panic attacks or depression with light antidepressants. This is backed up by the comments of Karos psychiatrist when prescribing the anxiety-relieving citalopram (“You don't have to go through hell, Mrs. Herrmann.”) And her later vacation replacement, which raises the question of why people with mental problems are not the same Get medical help, such as if you have high blood pressure or heart problems.
In some places the almost compulsive categorization of the current partner relationship by Karo is described and thus the feminine side in its interpretation (although of course not easily generalizable). So she provides z. B. stated in the initial phase with David: “I would like to classify the we. Are we one we? Are we a sometimes A maybe? ”. She herself differentiates between "having a crush, being in love, loving". To which the rather aloof David remarks: “You always screw each other. You pretend to have a crush out of self-protection until it's too late. Then I'm the ass who didn't realize in time that everything was going in a direction that I didn't want to go. ”What Karo, who is looking for security and stability, seems to be indispensable in this novel, either attracts a distancing reaction like here from David himself or later a more secretly derogatory one from Max, who apparently "thinks the idea of sleeping separately for three nights a week so that Karo does not have to admit a relationship is nonsense".
Last but not least, the novel illustrates how depression and panic attacks feel in the protagonist's everyday life. It is made clear that these seemingly unrelated, completely arbitrary and unforeseeable crises can be interpreted as a clear reaction to defended childhood trauma. Here too, the 27-year-old directly named the causes in Karo's case to the psychiatric vacation replacement: “1. sexual abuse by a close family member, 2. blows and too little love from an overwhelmed and presumably depressed mother herself at the time and, last but not least, 3. a father who simply could never convincingly convey to me that I am sufficient for him as I am. "
Facts and fiction
According to the author, the defective copy is not an autobiographical book. However, the personal experience of panic attacks made it easier for her to write about depression and anxiety.
filming
In the 2014 film adaptation of the novel, Claudia Eisinger embodies the main character Karo. Directed by Laura Lackmann , who also wrote the script. The cinema release in Germany was on May 12, 2016.
Individual evidence
- ↑ S. Fischer Verlage - Kuttner, Sarah. Retrieved July 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Sarah Kuttner's "Defective Copy": The Face of Depression. Interview on stern.de
- ↑ Sarah Kuttner: "An anxiety disorder is like a cold"; Interview on Brigitte.de
- ↑ Defective copy. In: Filmportal.de. Retrieved March 19, 2016 .