The patient
(Book)

When Parker, an ambitious young psychiatrist, takes a job at a dreary state mental hospital in New England, he is intrigued by the facility's most difficult and notoriously dangerous patient: Joe, a forty-one-year-old man originally admitted to the hospital at age six. No one has been able to successfully diagnose him, as his symptoms have evolved over time in unusual ways. The only constant: Every person who has encountered him has been driven to madness or suicide. Out of desperation, the hospital now allows the staff only minimal contact with Joe for their own safety. Yet Parker, confident in his skills, is convinced he will cure what others cannot. He finds a way to get close to Joe, determined to uncover what ails the suffering, enigmatic man. It is only after events begin to spiral out of his control that Parker finds himself face-to-face with a possibility beyond his wildest imagining. --Back cover.