“The Lotus and the Storm” by Lan Cao (post 3): Mai has blackouts, self-injury, and sees her “split self” in mirror, so family calls in thay phap exorcist

It is now 1971 in Vietnam and Mai, thirteen, has found bruises on her body. She does not recall how the bruises got there, but her grandmother, who has seen her injure herself, says, “Don’t hit yourself anymore. I will hold your hands and tie them to mine if I have to” (1, p. 178). I previously discussed self-injury in multiple personality in regard to Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects.

Like other persons with multiple personality, Mai may see one of her alternate personalities when she looks in a mirror. So she avoids looking in mirrors. She says, “I do not permit myself to look. I am too aware of what I might see, an eerie manifestation of a new, split self that adopts my form and face and stands in a spark of angry, grievous judgment of all that has occurred” (1, p. 179).

At least in retrospect, Mai is psychologically-minded, and speaks in terms of a “split self,” but her teacher and family think she is the victim of spirit possession: “Overtaken by more blackouts, I am sent home from school again. Whatever my teacher saw caused her to describe the incident to Mother as something ‘like being possessed’ ” (1, p. 185).

So her family calls in a thay phap, who says, “There are hundreds of spirits of all kinds. There are those who guide and those who harass, sometimes deliberately, sometimes not. I will work to exorcise the malevolent ones” (1, p. 189).

1. Lan Cao. The Lotus and the Storm. New York, Viking, 2014.