Louise van der Laan [1955] NL
Biography
I am born short of breath and a depressed child
At age ten, I am being treated with tranquilizers
At age twelve, my sister and me are using pot, mushrooms, and LSD
At age sixteen, my sister and I start shooting heroin
At age eighteen, I am psychotic for the first time
At age nineteen, I marry a doctor and live as a middle-class housewife and a junkie
At age nineteen, I am for the first time forced to submit to psychiatric treatment for psychosis, depressive disorder, addiction, and hysteria
At age twenty-seven, my sister dies of a heroin overdose
At age twenty-seven, I start drinking excessive amounts of alcohol
At age twenty-eight, I adopt my sister’s heroin baby as my beloved child
At age twenty-eight, I train as a educationalist, and work with children while on drugs
At age twenty-nine, I am pregnant and stop using heroin
At age twenty-nine, I am hospitalized for nine months, speechless and apathetic, and being treated for postnatal depression
At age thirty-four, I use cocaine and wander on the streets, bored and anxious
At age thirty-six, my husband dies
At age forty, I am beaten up and raped by a junkie who tries to force me into prostitution
At age forty-two, my boyfriend is for the first time found guilty of abusing me and detained
At age forty-seven, I enjoy wandering on the streets and using drugs with my boyfriend
At age fifty, my alcoholic father dies
At age fifty, I am clean for the second time in my life, and tired of life
From a dialogue with the participant and with the aid of the matrix a biography of basic facts is developed, which portrays the person’s life as a sequence of events and decisions, of acts and reactions.
The texts of the biographies are spoken by the participants themselves, and recorded for the audio modules of the Baby Dolls and the project’s audio archive.