According to Ida Görres, "Therese instantly understood what had happened to her when she won this banal little "victory" over her sensitivity, which she had borne for so long; …freedom is found in resolutely looking away from oneself.. and the fact that a person can cast himself away from himself reveals again that being good, "victory" is pure grace, a sudden gift..It cannot be coerced, and yet it can be received only by the patiently prepared heart". Biographer Kathryn Harrison: "After all, in the past she "had" tried to control herself, had tried with all her being and had failed. Grace, alchemy, masochism: through whatever lens we view her transport, Therese's night of illumination presented both its power and its danger. It would guide her steps between the mortal and the divine, between living and dying, destruction and apotheosis. It would take her exactly where she intended to go".