5. Introduction
• James and Abby are childhood friends
• James has an abusive father which whom James and his
mother are on the run from
• When James’s father finds them, they leave again and
leave behind James’s first love, Abby
6. Several years later…
• James returns and meets Abby at her art auction
• They reconnect only to find out that Abby is engaged
to a man named William and is to be married that
very weekend
• They continue their friendship putting their love for
each other aside
• A year later, it’s James’s birthday and he
chooses to celebrate at his favorite bar
• The married couple attends and William
immediately feels uncomfortable
7. The Incident
• A drunk, insolent man grabs Abby’s butt and William runs
to her defense
• Unaware of how to act in a bar, William tells the man to
apologize but only angers him more
• The drunk man motions to throw a punch but is instead
punched in the face by James
• The bartender kicks out the man and his friends, leaving
the man vengeful
• When leaving the bar, the man sneaks out of a dark corner
and punches William in the face
• William falls and hits his head on the hitch of a truck,
knocking him out cold
9. After the incident
• William returns home but is not himself – he doesn’t
speak; he barely moves; it’s almost as if he’s not there
• Abby cares for him as much as she can while her mother
and William encourage her to get out of the house more
• After constantly arguing with them and slapping James in
the face, she goes out to meet him at the dock
• They kiss and she immediately feels guilty having left
William at home with her mother
• She runs back home only to find neither her mother, nor
William are there at the house…
10. • Abby thinks William has run off
because he saw her and James kiss at the dock
• James reveals to her that he is gone, and he has been
gone for a long time now
• She remembers back to the night of James’s birthday
when William hit his head – he died that night
• Every moment spent with him after that night was
only a figment of her heartbroken imagination –
events she fabricated through her altered
consciousness
11. Proof of Dissociative Fugue
Although I do not have a license to diagnose, it seems
immensely possible that Abby was a patient that suffered
from dissociative fugue:
• Dreamlike state of alt. consciousness – She definitely
entered this state by imagining William’s presence. She
made excuses for him when he wouldn’t “talk” or “eat.”
She also continued to tell James and her mother several
times that William is not a burden and she enjoys taking
care of him.
• The whole incident was obviously stress-induced seeing
as though she just lost her husband in a bar fight.
• Finally, her form of amnesia was indeed reversed when
she realized that William was, and has been, gone.
