Mens Sana in Corpore Sano? Interiority and Peripheral Insanity in Patrick McGrath's “Ground Zero” (2005)

Abstract

In the authors’ reading of Patrick McGrath's novella “Ground Zero”, the geopolitical consequences of 9/11 are not only shown to resonate in the protagonists’ domestic sphere, unsettling their comfortable vie intérieure, but they are also literally inscribed in the human mind. Focalized through a narrator active as a psychiatrist, McGrath's story invokes a quasi-unmediated subjectivity that seems unchallenged. As it turns out, however, the medical, moral and social authority upon which the nameless psychiatrist in “Ground Zero” acts, and the hierarchy of knowledge in her doctor–patient relationships are slowly being eroded from the inside out. The events of 9/11 have instigated in the characters’ social environment (and ultimately in themselves) a permanent factor of uncertainty and doubt. In reaction to this impingement on their daily routines, the narrator ensconces herself in a safe world of interiority and seclusion. Her highly tuned analytical skills notwithstanding, the narrator is at a loss when it comes to diagnosing the post-9/11 condition of the times, as well as her own position vis-à-vis the events.

Notes

¹Milton, ll. 253–4.

²Keniston and Quinn, 12.

³Däwes, 285–6.

⁴Ibid., 290–1.

⁵Lakoff, 2.

⁶Däwes, 293–4.

⁷Duggan, 387.

⁸McGrath, “Ground Zero,” 175. All references to “Ground Zero” are taken from the Bloomsbury paperback edition of Ghost Town. Tales of Manhattan Then and Now published in 2006, and will hereafter appear in in-text parentheses.

⁹Butler, 4.

¹⁰Ibid., 5–6.

¹¹Zlosnik, 117.

¹²Duggan, 388; Däwes, 293–5.

¹³LaCapra, History in Transit, 125–6.

¹⁴ Writing 9/11 (Diamond) was broadcast on 18 May 2008 on Radio New Zealand as part of the annual Writers and Readers Festivals held in Wellington and Auckland. Apart from Patrick McGrath, the other panellists were the British writer and war correspondent James Meek and the Pakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid, author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

¹⁵See Diamond.

¹⁶Adams, no page.

¹⁷See Diamond.

¹⁸Zlosnik, 9.

¹⁹Scull, 19.

²⁰Wroe, no page.

²¹MacKenzie, no page.

²²Wroe, no page; Zlosnik, 11.

²³Zlosnik, 9–10.

²⁴MacKenzie, no page.

²⁵Duggan, 381.

²⁶MacKenzie, no page.

²⁷Zlosnik, 110.

²⁸Duggan, 388.

²⁹See Diamond.

³⁰McGrath and Morrow, eds., xiv.

³¹Milton, l. 254.

³²Zlosnik, 10.

³³MacKenzie, no page.

³⁴Duggan, 387.

³⁵Zlosnik, 10.

³⁶Ibid.

³⁷Lakoff and Frisch, 1.

³⁸Borradori, 92.

³⁹Ibid., 150.

⁴⁰Kuo, 56.

⁴¹Zlosnik, 10.

⁴²Lakoff and Johnson, 185.

⁴³Cf. also Duggan, 387.

⁴⁴Lakoff and Johnson, 185.

⁴⁵Duggan, 388.

⁴⁶Däwes, 294.

⁴⁷Levinas, 124.

⁴⁸Kuo, 68.

⁴⁹Versluys, 149.

⁵⁰Levinas, 124.

⁵¹Cf. Butler, 7.

⁵²Ibid., 4.

⁵³Ibid., 5.

⁵⁴Ibid., 7.

⁵⁵Ibid., 30.

⁵⁶Ibid., 3–4.

⁵⁷Ibid., 7.

⁵⁸Kuo, 71.

⁵⁹Cf. for example the murder of the Arizona gas station owner Balbir Singh Sodhi on 15 September 2001 (Ellison, no page).

⁶⁰See also Lakoff, 4–5.

⁶¹Versluys, 156.

⁶²Levinas, 124.

⁶³As opposed to a virtual experience of trauma, in which one is able to put oneself in the victim's place imaginatively while respecting the difference between self and other (LaCapra, History in Transit, 125). In the case of the narrator, this vicariousness is not elicited by an inordinate empathic identification with the victim—she is, after all, utterly unable to step out of her own preoccupations—but by an equally inappropriate surge of trauma envy at Dan's first-hand experiences.

⁶⁴LaCapra, History in Transit, 125.

⁶⁵Weissman, 30.

⁶⁶LaCapra, Writing History, 102.

⁶⁷Santner, 144.

⁶⁸Duggan, 388.

⁶⁹Ibid.

⁷⁰Ibid.

⁷¹Butler, 5; Kuo, 64.

⁷²Duggan, 391.

⁷³Zlosnik, 117–18.

⁷⁴Däwes, 285.

⁷⁵Ibid., 295–6.

⁷⁶See Diamond.

⁷⁷Ibid.

⁷⁸Butler, 7.

⁷⁹Hand, 41.

⁸⁰Butler, 6.

⁸¹Levinas, 125.

⁸²Lakoff and Johnson, 232.

⁸³Ibid.

⁸⁴Lakoff, 5.

Additional information

Funding

The research for this article was funded by the Ghent University Special Research Fund (“Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds”) [grant number 01D25008].