Volume 85 of the collected works focuses on one of Karl May's most unusual and profoundly moving texts: "Frau Pollmer, a psychological study." Here, the deeply wounded author, affected by the processes and public debates surrounding his persona, accounts for his first marriage to Emma Pollmer and its failure. Never before and rarely afterward has May allowed such an open and unflinching look into his life as in this reckoning, where anger and despair alternate, and he rarely exercises so much self-criticism. Some gaps in his official autobiography "My Life and Striving" are filled here. The dispute with the sensationalist publisher Münchmeyer over the unfortunate "pulp novels" and Karl May's efforts to convey his literary concept are also included. Additionally, the slowly changing relationship with his surroundings is addressed.