K-Pax

Gene Brewer

Bloomsbury, 2002, £6.99

ISBN 0 747 52547 1

Rating: ***

Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges are gracing cinema screens at the moment in the Hollywood success K-Pax. But many wont be aware that the film is actually an adaptation of a novel by Gene Brewer.

Insanity and aliens, two staple themes of modern science fiction, form the heart of Brewers story. The plot of K-Pax centres around meetings between Prot—an enigmatic patient undergoing psychiatric treatment at the Manhattan Institute of Psychiatry—who believes he is an alien from the planet K-Paxand his psychiatrist, Dr Brewer—no, not the author.

Initially, Prot appears deluded and psychotic. But, as the plot develops, the readers certainty that Prot is not an extraterrestrial is gradually eroded as it becomes apparent that K-Pax is a real planet and that Prot has unusual physical attributes, such as being able to see ultraviolet light. Dr Brewer, never wavers, however, theorising that Prots dense, complex delusions are the result of a split personality disorder precipitated by an uncommonly traumatic life event.

When Prot announces that he is to return to K-Pax “on a beam of light,” and names a date for doing so, Prots psychiatrist fears that he will lapse into a catatonic state, unless he can bring him back to reality before this date. A race against time ensues, as Dr Brewer attempts to uncover Prots true past—hoping that this information will bring Prot back to the real world—before it is time for Prot to “leave.”

K-Pax is an entertaining read, but certain aspects of the novel will doubtless irritate many. For example, the way Brewer uses the Utopian society of K-Pax to illustrate the fallacies and brutalities of human nature is obvious and somewhat clumsy, often descending into clichés.

Brewers treatment of neuropsychiatric illness is disappointing. K-Pax is clearly influenced by Sackss classic The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, but, in comparison, comes across as slow witted.

K-Pax presents serious neurological or psychiatric illnesses as disorders that are simply a result of abnormal thought processes, rather than “solid,” organic disorders. Despite being written to entertain, K-Pax has the potential to reinforce the misconceptions and misinformation surrounding psychiatric disorders.