Fugue States

One of The Globe and Mail’s Best Books of 2017: A perfect mix of entertaining and edgy, Fugue States is a thought-provoking exploration of the first-generation Canadian experience from one of the more irreverent, inventive and daring minds writing fiction today Fugue States begins as Ash Dhar, a thirty-something writer, opens his mouth to deliver a eulogy at a funeral—the funeral for his own father, a Kashmir-born doctor. But in that moment between thought and speech, something mysterious occurs: a terrible wordless gap into which Ash falls helplessly, recovering only as the concerned faces of friends and family shock him into focus. Later, still unsettled as he sorts through his father’s belongings, Ash discovers a partially completed and baffling work of fiction set in what seems to be Kashmir. Reading his father’s words, Ash feels compelled to know more about this ancestral land—and yet he resists the impulse to visit, loathe to be a cliché, chasing self-discovery in a war-torn homeland. But Ash’s childhood friend Matt—pothead, massage therapy student and self-described “maker of memories”—has no such hesitations and goes in Ash’s place . . . with unexpected and excruciating results. Soon, Ash is forced to rescue Matt by following him to India—where he experiences a second alarming gap, one that echoes and amplifies the mysterious “fugue state” with which the novel began. Fugue States is at once a parody of clueless tourism; a knowing, uneasy look at contemporary masculinity; and a surprisingly poignant tale about the deep inchoate melancholy that abides in people who, like Ash and his father, and even Matt-the-fool, have never felt completely at home in the world.

"Brilliant...Evenson manages to capture madness with a masterful tone. The specific genius of Fugue State rests in subtlety, in Evenson's ability to maintain suspense, dread and paranoia through utter linguistic control.”--Time Out New York "19 satisfying and surreal stories...packed with subtly hilarious sentences.”--Cleveland Plain Dealer "Brian Evenson is one of the treasures of American story writing, a true successor both to the generation of Coover, Barthelme, Hawkes and Co., but also to Edgar Allan Poe."--Jonathan Lethem "The stories in this collection will thrill, unsettle, and captivate. Like lanterns in dark rooms, paper boats carried down on subterranean waters, they lead the reader into mysterious and perilous territory. Read at your own risk."--Kelly Link Illustrated by graphic novelist Zak Sally, Brian Evenson's hallucinatory and darkly comic stories of paranoia, pursuit, sensory deprivation, amnesia, and retribution rattle the cages of the psyche and peer into the gaping moral chasm that opens when we become estranged from ourselves. From sadistic bosses with secret fears to a woman trapped in a mime's imaginary box, and from a post-apocalyptic misidentified Messiah to unwitting portraitists of the dead, the mind-bending world of this modern-day Edgar Allan Poe exposes the horror contained within our daily lives. Brian Evenson is the author of the Edgar and International Horror Guild award-nominated novel The Open Curtain.

Broke and down on his luck, Sebastien Ranes robs a grocery store, making off with nearly $5,000. His image is all over the television within hours, but before Sebastien can be arrested, a drunk driver smashes into his Jeep in the middle of town. Things couldn't get much worse until a Marine recruiter who witnesses the accident gives Sebastien a ride home--and a way out.

Reflections on the Reality of transient mental illnessThis text uses the case of Albert Dadas, the first diagnosed "mad traveller", to weigh the legitimacy of cultural versus physical symptoms in the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders. The author argues that psychological symptoms find niches where transient illnesses flourish.

Around the world societies are facing growing aging populations with the concomitant increase in neuropsychiatric disorders. Neuropsychiatric disorders are organic brain diseases with psychiatric symptoms, as in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, that cause cognitive impairment, including dementia, amnesic syndrome, and personality–behavioral changes. As a clinical science, neuropsychiatry aims to explore the complex interrelationship between behavior and brain function from a variety of perspectives, including those of psychology, neurology, and psychiatry. This concise and updated monograph comprises the latest findings in the field and includes chapters on delusional symptoms, mood disorders and neurotic symptoms, cognitive impairment, behavioral and personality changes, and recently, cerebral alterations revealed in PTSD patients and in endogenous psychoses through neuroimaging and neuropathology. These findings will certainly widen the realm of neuropsychiatry going forward and will prove of great value to specialists as well as to academics and trainees in neurology, psychiatry, neuropsychology, neuroradiology, neuropathology, neurophysiology, neurochemistry, and clinical genetics. Ultimately, neuropsychiatry aims to prevent and reduce the suffering of individuals with the psychiatric symptoms of cerebral disorders.

Provides clinical descriptions diagnostic guidelines and codes for all mental and behavioural disorders commonly encountered in clinical psychiatry. The book was developed from chapter V of the Tenth Revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10). The clinical descriptions and diagnostic guidelines were finalized after field testing by over 700 clinicians and researchers in 110 institutes in 40 countries making this book the product of the largest ever research effort designed to improve psychiatric diagnosis. Every effort has been made to define categories whose existence is scientifically justifiable as well as clinically useful. The classification divides disorders into ten groups according to major common themes or descriptive likeness a new feature which makes for increased convenience of use. For each disorder the book provides a full description of the main clinical features and all other important but less specific associated features. Diagnostic guidelines indicate the number balance and duration of symptoms usually required before a confident diagnosis can be made. Inclusion and exclusion criteria are also provided together with conditions to be considered in differential diagnosis. The guidelines are worded so that a degree of flexibility is retained for diagnostic decisions in clinical work particularly in the situation where provisional diagnosis may have to be made before the clinical picture is entirely clear or information is complete. ... As befitting a publication of considerable influence the amount of work that went into preparing ICD-10 has been formidable... - The International Journal of Social Psychiatry

A comprehensive clinical reference in emergency neurology, from prehospital care to the final disposition of the patient.