How does Le Horla combine psychological insight with supernatural elements?

Le Horla masterfully blends psychological insight with supernatural elements by utilizing the diary format to document the narrator’s descent into madness.1

The story presents the protagonist’s conviction that an invisible, parasitic creature is draining his life force, a narrative device that serves as a chilling exploration of hallucination and mental instability. By grounding the supernatural threat in the intimate, subjective perspective of a diary, Guy de Maupassant bridges the gap between objective reality and the terrifying internal world of a deteriorating mind.123

Critics often draw parallels between the narrator’s debilitating obsessions and the author’s own struggles with syphilis and declining mental health. Ultimately, the story’s power lies in this synthesis: it uses the supernatural to externalize the internal, creating a narrative where the line between a genuine paranormal encounter and the symptoms of a mental disorder remains hauntingly ambiguous.123