Translated for the first time into English, cult German author Rainald
Goetz's debut novel Insane draws upon his clinical psychiatric
experience to paint a portrait of the asylum as a total institution. We
follow a young psychiatrist, Dr Raspe, who enters the profession
dreaming of revolutionising its methods. Confronted by day-to-day
practices and the reality of life in the psychiatric hospital, Raspe
begins to fray at the edges. The very concept of madness is called into
question in a brutal portrayal of patients and psychiatrists and the
various treatments administered, from psychotherapy to electroshock
therapy. What is madness? And who is truly mad? Diving headlong into a
terrifying and oppressive world, Insane is a veritable journey into
the madhouse by one of Germany's most prominent and contentious authors.