The Devil Aspect

The Devil Aspect by Craig Russell  414 pp.

The setting is Prague in 1935. The Nazis are beginning their encroachment into surrounding countries.  Viktor Kosárek, a psychiatrist who studied with Carl Jung, comes to the creepy mountain castle that houses the Hrad Orlu Asylum for the criminally insane. The country's six most notorious  killers are housed there. The six, known as the Woodcutter, the Clown, the Vegetarian, the Sciomancer, and the Demon, are going to be subjects Viktor will study in an effort to find what he calls "The Devil Aspect", an archetype shared by all that caused them to commit their horrific crimes. He also begins a romance with a secretary working at the asylum. However, the police in Prague are dealing with a brutal serial killer called "Leather Apron" by the press. Police investigator Lukas Smolak enlists the help of the doctors at the asylum in his investigation. Then Viktor begins to suspect that an old friend may be the killer. The story is appropriately dark and somewhat gory and even though I predicted the ending twist before it happened, it is a page-turner of a story. I listened to the audiobook which was nicely performed by Julian Rhind-Tutt.

Rx: a graphic memoir

Rx: a graphic memoir / Rachel Lindsay, 254 pgs.

Rachel Lindsay was managing her mental illness with medication and therapy when she had a bit of a breakdown.  This memoir depicts that breakdown and the immediate aftermath. Although this is a very personal story, she also talks a bit about the vicious cycle of insurance, medication, choices that really aren't choices.  I loved the illustrations and Rachel's story. 

Brain on Fire

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan  264 pp.

It's been awhile since I stayed up until 3:00 a.m. to finish a book when I had to get up for work the next day but I got caught up in this one.  In 2009, twenty-four year old Cahalan suffered what, at first, seemed to be a breakdown which became more severe and evolved into a complete psychotic break. Her madness included hallucinations, paranoia, and violent outbursts against friends, family, and total strangers. The first doctor who "treated" her, concluded she was just drinking too much and that stopping alcohol would solve the problem. But Cahalan was not drinking to excess. When she began suffering seizures it was thought that her psychosis was what is called Postictal Psychosis, essentially psychosis caused by seizures. Treating the seizures did not solve the problem. It took multiple doctors and countless tests before she was diagnosed with a little known autoimmune disorder that was attacking her brain. Cahalan, a New York Post reporter, has written a fascinating account of what she went through based on journals kept by family members, videos of her behavior when hospitalized, accounts from medical professionals, and her own memories.

The Antiquarian / Gustavo Faveron Patriau (translated from Spanish) 209 p.

At 209 pages, this is the perfect length.  Any longer and the reader risks descending permanently into the mad world created by the author.  The narrator is a psycholinguist attempting to uncover the secret behind the murder of his old friend's fiancee.  His friend, once a collector of rare books, has for some time been locked up in a psychiatric hospital, depicted in delightfully creepy prose.  The collector tells his story (or conceals it) by spooling out weird fables which may or may not be embedded in the violent history of Spain, or Central America, or Peru. Add to that a sister who in childhood loved to start fires, some shrunken heads, death by paper, and you have a story you'll never understand but which you might enjoy anyway.

Falling into the Fire: a Psychiatrist's Encounters with the Mind in Crisis / Christine Montross 239 pp.

Montross is a young-ish practicing psychiatrist and very fine writer.  She presents case studies of various patients and delves into the ethical, financial, legal and emotional aspects of treating these patients.  In the most memorable portion, she describes in detail a young woman who visits the same emergency room on a very regular basis, always because she has swallowed dangerously sharp metal objects.  She cannot be cured of this behavior, seemingly, but her repeated treatments to remove the objects and stabilize her mentally are fantastically expensive and consume vast amounts of staff time and supervision.  Montross is not afraid to express her own vulnerabilities in the face of this and other challenging situations.  Fluid and fascinating.