An Anonymous Girl: A Novel

Although the field of psychology has made strides in modern times toward more ethical approaches, laws, and standards, its history is in many ways fraught with controversy and abuse in an area of study that is still considered new and in development. Some specific examples of historical controversy within psychology include the use of lobotomies, the experimentation of various drugs on human patients, and the undertaking of famously unethical studies, such as the Stanford experiment on role adoption and the Little Albert phobia experiment. Many of these studies caused real and significant harm to patients. Today, codes such as the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, created and implemented by the American Psychological Association, mitigate any tendencies toward abuse, maltreatment, and other ethical issues in relation to psychological studies and treatment.

Within An Anonymous Girl, Jessica becomes trapped in a psychologically torturous and manipulative bond with a psychologist named Dr. Shields. Dr. Shields acts as a stereotypical sinister mental health professional who uses her knowledge and skills in dealing with people to control Jessica’s thoughts and actions. Dr. Shields often refers to specific real-life studies as she makes observations and plans out her experiment; one example of this is the invisible gorilla experiment, which Dr.