Phenomenal Psychological Pressure

I seemed to have to exert phenomenal psychological pressure along the order of mesmerism, to induce her to meet my eye...

Altered States, ch. 4

Alan strives time and again to capture Sarah Miller's attention. The 'oddness' of Sarah, her 'psychopathology' - she's a 'lusus naturae', a freak of nature, he decides - are topics for much speculation - by Alan, and by Brookner. There's a sense of Brookner struggling to capture Sarah, of Sarah - more than any other Brookner monster - eluding the baffled author's grasp.

I telephoned her several times. Each time there was no answer, yet I had an image of her, sitting in the flat, on the floor, perhaps, willing the sound to stop, the silence to be restored. (Ch. 6)