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THE OUTWARD ROOM by Millen Brand

THE OUTWARD ROOM

By

ISBN: 1590173597
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Psychiatry fictionized in the story of a manic depressive, who, emotionally blocked at the death of her brother, to whom she has been too closely tied, feels she, too, has died. Treated by Freudian precepts, escaping from the hospital, she goes to New York, meets and lives with a fine simple understanding man but never feels completely freed of her psychosis. Suspense is maintained with the threat of another attack and its outcome. While there is a feeling that the characters have been sacrificed to the thesis, the writing is often effective, and, though psycho-analysis, per se, is interesting (and also controversial) an entirely Freudian pattern does not seem to make a satisfying novel. Perhaps there might be a market for it in the Private Worlds audience.