Thomas Holden, a psychology intern in a modern psychiatric hospital, is in trouble. The depressed patient he discharged yesterday was run over by a mail truck. Was it suicide? Is he responsible for her death? His new patient Richard Mobin is an obese, rather disgusting, and violent schizophrenic who drowns baby birds and thinks that men in raincoats are trying to kill him. If that isn't enough to handle, Holden is assigned yet another difficult patient - a "John Doe" who apparently has no memory or identity, whom police found wandering the highway, collecting and burying road kill. But is this John Doe truly crazy, or is there something he's hiding, something insidious he's deliberately trying to do to Holden? Just when he feels he has reached his limits, Holden's beloved journal, the lifelong record of all his thoughts and feelings, mysteriously disappears. Then a sharp pair of scissors from the occupational therapy room disappears... And then Doe disappears.

Interspersed into this plot of Madman are excerpts from Holden's journal, as well as his "internal discourses" that are triggered by the events of his day (similar to the protagonist in Robert Pirsig's novels). He takes a hard look at psychology, psychoanalysis, and science itself - and wonders whether they are enough to understand the mind. He questions his past, his future, his own motives. Possessed by his patients, he worries that maybe he too is losing his hold on reality.

I hope this novel will appeal to a variety of readers. For lay people and psychology students who are interested in the mental health profession, it accurately portrays life in a psychiatric inpatient unit. It explores important professional and theoretical issues in psychology (including nuances that even experts will appreciate), but also pokes fun at the people and institutions involved. The undercurrent is rich in mystical (eastern) ideas.

Unlike other accounts of working in a psychiatric hospital, my work is not simply a descriptive account of life on a psychiatric unit. Nor is it an attempt to sensationalize or glorify psychology. I intended this book as a novel with literary symbolism and themes that transcend plot (at least I hope so). While writing it, I drew on my experiences as a practicing clinical psychologist, a professor, and a student of eastern philosophy.

While writing Madman, I kept my own psychology students in mind. I currently use the book as a reading for students in my psychotherapy course. If any publishers out there are interested in publishing the novel, feel free to contact me.