As he studied the dregs of the strong Turkish coffee he drank in the mornings, Gessen was struck by a memory from his boyhood, how he’d been lured during a visit to a provincial fair into a shadowy tent by a woman with crow-black hair who promised to read his fortune in the tea leaves. Past, present, and future. Come, my boy, don’t be afraid.

He’d shivered at the idea, but before he could pull away, she prepared the leaves and bent her head over the cup. In a thick accent, she spoke of a dark knight, a monstrous secret, a gold ring. Admonishing him with a stern frown, after she’d taken his money, to beware his second Saturn return. Whatever that was. Even as a boy he’d known it was nonsense, though shivers had travelled down his arms, and for several days afterwards he suffered from a strange fever and bouts of dizziness.

Later in life, after her prophecies came true, he wondered how she’d known. Had she seen something in his face or a shadow in his eyes? A glimpse, perhaps, of the fatal flaw he himself knew nothing of. On some days, while working with a particularly difficult patient, trying to understand the trauma in their past by the signposts of the present, Gessen’s thoughts would return to the fortune teller, who’d frightened him by the urgency of her words, wondering if their different means of divination, one mystical, the other grounded in science, were simply opposite sides of the same coin.

After several attempts he got Kiraly’s attending physician on the phone and made his proposition. If Kiraly were willing, Gessen would cover the costs of his transfer and treatment at his private clinic in the Bernese Oberland. Top-notch facilities and stellar psychiatric care, guaranteed.

‘I know who you are,’ said the woman in lightly accented English. ‘I’ve read your case studies on trauma and somatisation. Very compelling, and a particular interest of mine. Though he’s stable now, Professor Kiraly continues to insist there’s nothing wrong with him and is threatening to leave the hospital against medical advice.’

Gessen jotted a few notes. ‘I’ll have my assistant email a copy of our brochure. Perhaps our tranquil setting and extensive range of facilities will be inducement enough for Professor Kiraly to agree to therapy.’