Abe Redden was very surprised when he found Seymour Ratner dead in the seclusion room. It was true that at one point or another almost everyone at Four Elms, a private psychiatric hospital, had expressed a desire to throttle Seymour. He was driving everyone crazier even Redden, his psychiatrist. And Seymour was always claiming that someone was out to get him. But it was also true that people are not supposed to die in seclusion rooms the "safe" rooms that have absolutely nothing in them; and nobody could have gotten into or out of that particular room, since the keyhole was blocked with wire....

Health anxiety is a distressing and debilitating condition and untreated continues on for years, worsening again every time the affected person becomes slightly ill. An innovative program of treatment begun in 1996 by the Anxiety and Phobia Center of White Plains Hospital has been tested overtime and found to relieve this otherwise chronic condition. This book and its companion, Worried Sick? The Workbook, explain the principles of the cognitive-behavioral treatment of health anxiety and give detailed direction on how to implement such a program. In addition, specific information is given...

A hilarious and harrowing novel, MANEUVERS is in the vein of Catch-22 and M*A*S*H*, except that it is set in peacetime. As Captain Abe Redden's superior officer likes to remind him, "Warfare is emotionally upsetting to everyone." However, for Captain Redden, M.D., being an Army psychiatrist on garrison duty in West Germany during the early 1960s is just as taxing, and dangerous. First the teenage daughter of a fellow officer dies in the post hospital's emergency room the night Redden is on duty. And then a young lieutenant involved in highly classified electronic espionage seeks out Dr....

Is a loved one close to you dealing with an emotional illness like: depression, mania, senility, suicide, terminal illness, schizophrenia, child abuse or psychiatric emergencies? This book will help you care for them more effectively. The families of the emotionally ill are faced with a most difficult and painful task. Wanting to help, as they always do, they too often feel at a loss trying to cope with the frustrating, often self-defeating behavior of the people they are caring for. Along with genuine concern and love, therefore, families often feel guilt, anger, and resentment. This...

"Superpowers" is a very funny, but serious account of a responsible, perhaps too responsible, young man growing up abruptly over a period of a few weeks. Chipper's mother died on a Sunday. He was admitted to the hospital the following Tuesday with what the doctor described as a "life-threatening" asthma attack; and then, as Chipper remarks, "Things began to run downhill." When he wakes up in the hospital, Chipper encounters an apparition, named Hal. Hal, who turns out during his different appearances throughout the book to be moody, sarcastic, funny and cynical, is dressed farcically in...

"Come One, Come All" is a locked-room murder mystery, and a take-off on locked-room murder mysteries. It is a comic novel, but realistic. Abe Redden, the narrator, is a young psychiatrist who was widowed three years ago. He is, consequently, still depressed, yet retains an ironic sense of humor. He is skeptical, insubordinate and combative--yet kind. He is enlisted to help a beleaguered women's health center in New York City The center is besieged by two groups of rioters, one supporting gay rights and the other right to life. They quarrel with certain programs of the center and, of course,...

Detroit Tom was the biggest kid on his block, and probably the next block too, and strong, super-strong, maybe even stronger than that. He was "really" strong. But dumb. Detroit Tom ranked 98 on the dumb scale, which may not be good enough to become a criminal mastermind--which was Tom's ambition. But, then again, "Big Louie," Tom's role model was a top-flight criminal, when he wasn't in jail, and he reached pretty high-up on the dumb scale too. In these two adventures, Detroit Tom and the guys from his gang: "Ratsie" Ratowitz, who was good at plotting and conniving, "Speedy" Arnold, who has...

The wicked son of the Passover service asks what the service means to the other congregants. Because the question itself implies that he is not part of the group, he is told that had he been in Egypt during the exodus, the Lord would not have saved him. This book is about skepticism and the price the skeptic pays for questioning the views of others. "Yes, it's true. The heavens have opened up, the seas have parted. The world as we know it is gone forever." That is what the Coosa sisters tell Dr. John Aster, a psychiatrist. It is immediately evident to him that they are delusional, but he...