Psychology and Other Stories

FINALIST FOR THE ETHEL WILSON FICTION PRIZEFINALIST FOR THE VICTORIA BUTLER BOOK PRIZEC.P. Boyko's second offering is brilliantly bold. Playful and dire and scholarly all at once, Psychology may well be the most audaciously original collection of Canadian fiction, ever. Mr. Mustard alone is worth the price of admission.Bill Gaston, author of Mount AppetiteVery revealing.Hubert T. Ross, PhD, PsyD, DPsyPsychologists are people we admire and resent. At best, theyre compassionate detectives of the human soul, healers and diagnosticians, assessing the internal machinations that structure our lives and behavior. At worst, however, theyre smug, hyper-educated, bombastic, yappy, socially deaf, thrice-divorced and twice-separated spouse-swapping cat-torturing perverts. Plus, theyre all in this book. And so are their patients. C.P. Boykos Psychology and Other Stories is replete with analysts, attorneys, criminals, Freudians, wardens, and self-help gurus. From Dr. Pringles treatment-resisting young patient in Reaction-Formation to the philandering forensic psychiatrist of The Blood-Brain Barrier, Psychology is a droll dissection of industry archetypesas well as a brilliant study of mental illness, mental health, and the people who try to tell them apart.