The Martha Problem: should we stop covering Fiona Muir-Harvey?
She’s clearly unwell. So is this a modern day freakshow?
I should say, watching that interview, I feel deeply, deeply sorry for Fiona. Because I’ve seen whatever disorder this is before, in another tragedy of a woman: the erratic, mad ramblings, the delusions, the absolute conviction in her own victimhood and grandiose magnificence, and the total belief that the world has wronged her and she is utterly, infallibly perfect in the face of overwhelming contradictions.
Because I knew another Fiona, until I had to block her on everything, change my number, call the police, and move. My Fiona was also convinced she was beautiful, desirable, extremely talented and powerful, and would flip between deranged, cruel attacks on me (I was a hideous hook-nosed Jew who looked like a man and was secretly a prostitute she wanted to attack with an axe) and writing poetry and long, long emails about how brilliant, beautiful, and kind I was, seemingly unaware of what she’d sent the day before. It was surreal. I saw so, so much of her watching ‘Martha’ it was honestly frightening. But I don’t hate her. Genuinely. Because like Fiona, my stalker was clearly deeply unwell.
I’m not a psychiatrist, and I’m very wary of slapping ‘BPD’ on every woman who writes me long rambling…
