Dr. Spradlin in a wonderful allegorical tale of international intrigue, death, sex, and romance poses the questions we all ponder about life-its meaning, who are we, what is the ego, and the place of the reverent. In this fast-paced and unique story, a naive psychiatry resident is confronted by three frames of reference-intellectual, emotional, and egotistical-as everyone is throughout life. Dr. Spradlin adroitly intertwines the action-packed tale set in a psychiatry ward in a veterans' hospital and rural Virginia with the psychotherapy process of mutual exploration by patient and therapist...