Marianne Eloise, a freelance journalist, is a practitioner of this form by trade, and she has stuck to its features in her move from journalism to essayism. Presumably informed by Baudrillard, Marianne Eloise reads the manicured joys of Disneyland’s “picture-perfect, pastel world” in three ways: as a source of obsession; a space for healing; and a site designed in its “DNA” to defer the fear of death. She then goes on to describe him as “a nice man” and wants you to believe he was some gentle, tortured soul trying to make a lovely sweet theme park full of rainbows and happiness because he was scared to die…yeah right, whatever.

Obsessive, Intrusive, Magical Thinking is the culmination of a life spend obsessing, offering a glimpse into Marianne’s brain, but also an insight into the lives of others like her. Long Live the New Flesh” opens with a cryptic poem the author wrote back in 2016: “There’s a television in my stomach / and I watch it nightly / at odds with my own body / as it shrinks, fades away.The first essay in particular, 'I am old now, but I wasn't then,' is a work of art, but in general, I loved going down the rabbit hole of Marianne's obsessions, her observations on pop culture and the tales of her travels as each essay unfolded.

To invoke this term is to make as much a political argument as a personal one: it is to qualify what we mean when we say “mental health”. While she claims “it’s impossible to gracefully tell the story of obsession”, the pull of “grace” is everywhere in the book, as struggle gives way to the inevitable triumph of wellness: the mental health epiphany. It indicates a subjectivity, rather than just a diagnosis, which is no less valuable than other types of brain functioning. There is a common thread throughout the essays of embracing who you are, learning to be gentle with yourself, and pursuing what brings you peace.

I hadn't come across Marianne Eloise before but I'm now going to look for everything else she has written.