Emily's Last Obsession

In this fictional work, Mitchell takes his readers on a journey in which four characters live within a world of delusion. As they seek to hold others to a high moral standard, they each fail to hold themselves to the same level of scrutiny. Mitchell reveals the personal flaws embedded in each character as he goes through a process of exposing how Emily, Karen, Tori and John deal with their personal indiscretions. Their self-indulgence, manipulation, and obsession are only some of the issues the characters face.

Emily systematically sets out to attract John Watson’s attention and affections. In order to meet her obsessive objective, she must damage his relationships with Karen and Tori in a way that preserves her innocence of any obvious manipulation.

NOTICE: This book contains sexual content. Mitchell uses sexual behavior to explore basic human drives and instincts, which often distract us from our personal moral standards and lead us to violate our principals.

Psychiatrist Sigmund Freud believed the human personality exists with three separate aspects controlling our actions and thoughts. One part of the mind is the moral compass, which guides us “to do the right thing”. The second part of the personality tells us we are free to do anything we so desire. The third part of the personality tries to resolve the conflict between those things we can do and those things we “should do”. Freud called these parts of personality the id, the ego and the super ego. Mitchell turns these three parts of personality into characters for the reader to explore.

The author also explores the self-deception people often use to explain away their choices in order to justify their actions. Each of the female characters represents one of the three aspects of human personality. As with all of Mitchell’s work, the characters must come to face their personal conflicts and failures in ways that are not always easy to predict.