Will's mother.

[eloquent]

Which would relate to my original idea of the consequences of the knife being broadly referred to as spectres. Yeah I guess I agree with that.

[Louhi]

To me it was obvious that she has obsessive-compulsive disorder (the way she's checking and counting and touching things). In addition to that she has some mental disorders I don't know the name of.

[Will]

I agree that the entire spectre thing is one big extended metaphor for evil and the results of the abyss. In Ci'gazze it's taken physical form, in our world as mental disorders - perhaps because that's something we can't cure?

[mosweetness]

First off, she wouldn't have had times when she could act normal-as stated in the beginning of the book if the spectres had gotten her.
secondly i need to compliment jess on the dic. post. thirdly, i don't believe
that she had any mental problems, i think that it is like w\ the compass, or the angels. there is an outside force that pullman choose not to reveal that may have somewhat affected her making her unresponsive- the schizophrenia idea is bogus because schizophrenics have changes in personality, not changes in which they go from responsive to un. and finally changing topics to will can someone tell me if his ability to go unnoticed is invisibility learned and he is really magical or not. i missed catching that in the book- Thanks, Mo

[jessia]

secondly i need to compliment jess on the dic. post.

copy&paste?

[withpaperwings]

i also got the impression she was obsessive compulsive, and probably paranoid as well.

what i'm unclear on is exactly how focusing on mundane tasks like counting stones could ward off a spectre. i know spectres feed on souls/daemons/dust but then in TSK pullman mentions something about them feeding on ATTENTION. so maybe consciousness, manifested in dust/daemons/whatever could be kept out of the spectres reach if the people's attention was elsewhere? or maybe she was trying to keep her soul from paying attention?

[jessia]

obsessive compuslive makes sense with the bench-slat counting, but she obviously suffered from other things. paranoia's usually a symptom of something bigger too.

[Angel to follow]

I was just thinking we are all assuming that her problems began after john disappeared. A spectre being a form of a ghost as the dictionary says could be almost symbolic.What i'm trying to get at is that maybe she saw john so often in various places i.e. super market, park etc that she had to force herself to count things because every where she turned she saw him.This ghostly image of her husband could be compare to a husband.I cant explain if someone doesn't understand i'll try again.

[Enitharmon]

I think it sounds like schizophrenia - but read my fanfic story These Foolish Things for a suggested explanation that's much more fun!

[rafouk]

there 's something we call "toc" in french(i don't know the word in english). some people needs to be concentrate on a thing or they become nervous and panicky, and it's hard
but i think PP wants us to "interpret" as we want to.

[conna]

So obviously, Will's mom has some sort of mental disorder. I was wondering, specifically, what everyone thought this disorder might be. I guess I was leaning twoard some form of skitzophrenia, but then again I've only studied mental disorders a little, so my knowledge of them is less than vast. Also, do you think she was sick when she got married, or did she develop it later?

I think she may of come in to contact with a specta for a short period of time some haw and thats why she is the way she is.

[Kathleen]

I think her condition is most like paranoia and obsessive-compulsive disorder. She cracked after her husband disappeared and the people started coming after his things, so im thinking she became quite paranoid as a result. Its never clearly stated because I don't think she ever gets medical help.

[jessia]

obsessive-compulsive's definitely involved... the way will mentionned that she had to touch all the bench slats in the park before she could leave. but there's other things, e.g. the paranoia, that might be a symptom of another issue.

[Angel to follow]

I think its definately a symptom of john leaving not just occuring naturally maybe she just missed him so much and it can't be easy being a single parent.It doesn't sound as if there was any family or anything to help her.

[jessia]

well a lot of single mothers get along on their own, plus mrs. parry didn't have to worry much about money with the family trust... i think a major stress issue that could've triggered mental problems, was the fact that she had the knowledge of the contents of those letters, and that there were people out there who wanted it.

[All_That_Jazz]

I've always thought that the specters were supposed to represent something in our world that doesn't exist physically, like the problems of society or something...a lot of things that exist in the books in other worlds seem to be linked to things that exist in our world but that aren't concrete. daemons, for example.

what i'm unclear on is exactly how focusing on mundane tasks like counting stones could ward off a spectre. i know spectres feed on souls/dæmons/dust but then in TSK pullman mentions something about them feeding on ATTENTION. so maybe consciousness, manifested in dust/dæmons/whatever could be kept out of the spectres reach if the people's attention was elsewhere? or maybe she was trying to keep her soul from paying attention?

This reminds me of something from A Tale of Two Cities: there are several instances of people focusing their attention on seemingly mundane things, like making shoes, or knitting, or "walking up and down" in order to stop dwelling on the crimes the aristocracy committed against them. Sort of like "holding out" for the revolution, when they could take revenge. Maybe the spectres represent despair or something, and Will's mother has to distract herself in order to resist them?

[Celinda]

I agree with the OCD, and IIRC, schizophrenia can include an array of symptoms like paranoia and obsession/compulsion.

And I think it was triggered by stress in her case and not Spectres. I got the feeling (and correct me if I'm wrong) that Will's mom had moments of lucidity, and that really didn't go with the way people appeared "vacant" after a "spectre attack."

JMHO.

[manda]

Celinda, just be careful you don't resurrect any more threads and take a look at the 10 Commandments.

I think it was caused by a very wide variety of things, not the least of which is that her husband disappeared.

[DutchCrunch]

I think it was caused by a very wide variety of things, not the least of which is that her husband disappeared.

Is that not provoking the discussion to continue? Not that I mind... I guess I always figured her to have been unstable from an earlier age. Might be just some wiring problem (which, of course, was aggrevated by the disappearance of her husband). Other people actually turn out stronger after or during a difficult period.

[daemonpurra]

I thought that she started losing it when she saw things [In Will's opinion Specters] Remeber they made her do things.