Filling in the Gaps between Childhood and Menopause in Alison Bechdel's Are you My Mother? A Comic Drama

COVID-19, or Coronavirus, is halting and ruining lives all around the world. This chapter looks at the way Bechdel fills the gaps, using different layers to compose the story of her life and her relationship to her mother. It looks at the ways the author finds a ‘cure’ through her experiences of psychoanalysis and of writing. The chapter starts by looking at the author’s relationship to psychoanalysis and how, in her understanding, she was able to transition from projective identification towards the mother to separation. It looks at autobiography as a therapeutic tool where the author is able to continue her therapeutic encounter with a psychoanalyst onto the page with her readers.