The Silent Patient

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What factors can contribute to mental illness? How might mental illness affect someone, and why is treatment important?

Teaching Suggestion: Since mental illness is a sensitive topic, and since some students and those they are close to might be facing a mental illness themselves, it may help to approach this Short Answer prompt and related questions with sensitivity as students progress through the novel. Discussing this issue and grounding it in scientific terms may help during the rest of the unit. If time permits, consider allowing students to conduct further research on mental illness and treatment, as this could provide students with helpful background information. To encourage student engagement and help them make connections between their research and the text, it could also be beneficial to revisit these articles later during reading.

• This resource from the National Alliance on Mental Illness presents statistics and facts about mental health, including the danger of leaving mental illness untreated. Links for additional research are included.
• This site from the Mayo Clinic includes an overview of mental illness and identifies symptoms as well as ways to help someone struggling with a mental health disorder. Links for additional research are included. (Note: This resource discusses suicidal thoughts.)

2. What are some different treatments for mental illnesses? How might someone manage a mental health disorder over time?

Teaching Suggestion: The characters encounter multiple types of treatment. Though not all-encompassing, these resources can provide some background about some of the approaches. Increasing knowledge of these aspects of therapy can benefit students as they read this novel that heavily features therapy sessions and discussions of treatment. It could be interesting to discuss some scenes in the novel and connect them to these readings.

• “Different Approaches to Psychotherapy” from the American Psychological Association presents information about ways therapists approach their work.
• This resource from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists explores the differences between psychologists and psychiatrists.
• This article from the American Art Therapy Association defines the art therapy profession and explains why the term “art therapy” is often misused.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the text.

What makes a text or story suspenseful? Why does the mystery and suspense genre appeal to so many people? What experiences with the genre do you have in film or literature?

Teaching Suggestion: To encourage student engagement, consider asking the class to first list some of their favorite titles in this genre and explain their reasons for choosing them. It may also help to create a list of common aspects in this genre to discuss and return to during reading, at which point students could identify the aspects the novel includes. One way to approach this Personal Connection Prompt would be to watch a scene or two from a mystery film or read a scene from another well-known suspense novel; this would provide the class with a common text to discuss.