Mella Affolter [1976] CH
Biography
At birth, my heart stops beating
At age three, I frequently live away from my parents
At age eight, I suffer from racist behavior directed against my father and myself
At age ten, I get homeopathic treatment against sadness and world-weariness
At age twelve, I ask too much of my parents by being ill, and I drink excessive amounts of alcohol
At age thirteen, my parents may refuse to see that I drink alcohol
At age fourteen, I escape from intrusive men by maiming myself and making myself ugly
At age fifteen, I drift around, drink myself unconscious, and desire to flee from my surroundings in the company of my lover
At age seventeen, I suffer my life as a housewife with my boyfriend
At age nineteen, I complete my second course of training and function on alcohol
At age twenty, I enjoy my male job
At age twenty-two, I work, addicted to drugs, under the obsessive interference of my employer
At age twenty-four, I try to kill myself
At age twenty-four, I live for months without the solace of alcohol, need more drugs, and start hallucinating
At age twenty-four, I escape from being publicly exposed by my boss by going back to my parents and try to get help
At age twenty-five, I feel at home in the company of drug addicts
At age twenty-seven, I am a beloved dealer and am happy in my relationship with an addicted man
At age twenty-nine, I am busy day and night trying to organize drugs for my friend and myself
At thirty, I embezzle money from a friend and suffer from feelings of guilt and lack of drugs
At age thirty, I panic, rob a gas station, and get arrested
At age thirty, I enter prematurely into custody, am treated with methadone, and need fewer drugs
At thirty-one, I am for the first time in my life diagnosed on the causes and nature of my addiction
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.