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Illustrated portrait of Dr Anderson

A character in The Return of the Soldier

Dr Anderson

The doctor who treats Chris's amnesia as a defense rather than a simple missing file.

What they want

To identify the psychological purpose of Chris's amnesia and find a memory powerful enough to end it.

The book

Cover of The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
The Return of the SoldierRebecca West, 1918

A soldier comes home without fifteen years of memory, forcing three women to decide what a cure would restore—and destroy.

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At a glance

Work
Doctor
Patient
Chris Baldry
Diagnosis
Amnesia as psychological protection

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Dr Anderson examines Chris after other reminders have failed. He proposes that the amnesia protects Chris from an adult life his deeper self rejects.

His diagnosis makes emotional history part of medical treatment. He needs the household to find a memory strong enough to reconnect the missing years.

How the book draws them

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

  • Careful listenerHe studies relationships as well as symptoms.
  • Psychological methodHe asks what the missing years contain.
  • Clinical restraintHe explains without claiming treatment is painless.
  • Dependent on the womenThe decisive memory must come from household knowledge.
How his theory is usedHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

Margaret identifies Oliver's death as the memory strong enough to restore Chris. Anderson's theory succeeds, while the ending exposes the cure's cost.

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