Lake Wenham Sanatorium

Mariette knows of the "new" sanatorium just outside town on the road to Danvers, Mass. The old sanatorium was destroyed by fire in the early 1920s; everyone refers to the seven-story building, rebuilt on the same location and opened in 1927, as the new sanatorium . (The actual name of the facility is the Lake Wenham Sanatorium.) Many patients at the facility are treated using a hydrotherapy, Metrazol, and electroconvulsive therapy. In the next few weeks, the Lake Wenham Sanatorium will be hosting Egas Moniz as he demonstrates a new technique of treatment he calls "prefrontal leucotomy" to the staff. Reactions are mixed in the psychiatric community: psychosurgery may supplant psychoanalysis as an accepted form of treatment.

Mariette also knows of Dr. Erwin Dieke, the egotistical head of the new sanatorium from his writings and reputation. Dieke seems to be locked in a one-sided rivalry with Carl Jung, whose writings he has repeatedly challenged in print. Jung hasn't responded to these and has admitted to Mariette in confidence that "the mad German's claims are not worth refuting".