asylum

Psychiatry is very pervasive in my life, not because I am surrounded by it, but because I regularly seek it out. I've had a fun filled weekend filled with living pathology (oxymoron?) for I just finished watching The Talented Mr. Ripley and I've just finished reading Asylum by Patrick McGrath. The former deals with a homosexual sociopath who impersonates other individuals to win status, affection, or whatever it is that sociopaths seek to achieve in life while killing everyone who might set their path astray. The latter involves a depressive wife of the medical superintendent of the psychiatry department who quite ironically has an affair with a psychopath of her own who had previously killed his wife, decapitated her, put the head on a sculpture stand and stabbed it repeatedly making sure to enucleate it.

I think Mag said something that really resonates with me when I think about the psychiatric population: "You'd be surprised to see how normal they are until you speak with them at length and you realize something isn't quite right." Mag has noticed psychiatric patients sharing the aisle with her at Safeway, her colleagues have ridden the bus downtown sitting amongst discharged patients; psychiatry is rather pervasive whether you recognize it or not.

It's quite astonishing to see how well Mr. Ripley and Mr. Stark are able to charm their way through life until something sets them off and they kill. These are simply fictitious homages (wrong connotation, maybe simply a reference?) to individuals like Ted Bundy - real life charmers with less than moral convictions.

So then be careful the next time someone kindly chats you up by the bus stop. They could very well just be the serial killer living next door.