Laurence Arthur Rickels Book order

The Psycho Records follows the influence of the primal shower scene within subsequent slasher and splatter films.

**A New York Times top 100 Notable Book of the Year** Alexander Bruno is a man with expensive problems. Sporting a tuxedo and trotting the globe, he has spent his adult life as a professional gambler. His particular line of work- backgammon, at which he extracts large sums of money from men who think they can challenge his peerless acumen. In Singapore, his luck turned. Maybe it had something to do with the Blot - a black spot which has emerged to distort Bruno's vision. It's not showing any signs of going away. As Bruno extends his losing streak in Berlin, it becomes clinically clear that the Blot is the symptom of something terrible. There's a surgeon who can help, but surgery is going to involve a lot of money, and worse- returning home to the garish, hash-smoke streets of Berkeley, California. Here, the unseemly Keith Stolarsky - a childhood friend in possession of an empire of themed burger bars and thrift stores - is king. And he's willing to help Bruno out. But there was always going to be a price.

Exploring the interplay between science fiction and psychological conditions, Laurence A. Rickels examines Philip K. Dick's works through the lens of schizophrenia and psychopathy. He investigates how these themes reflect the Cold War era, analyzing key texts like The Simulacra and Fahrenheit 451. The study highlights the evolution of the genre from Nazi Germany to the post-WWII landscape, addressing the impact of psychopathic violence on society and the genre's narrative. Rickels argues for a deeper understanding of the cultural and historical contexts shaping modern science fiction.

The first installment of Laurence A. Rickels's "unmourning" trilogy explores themes of grief and memory through a unique lens. Originally published in 1988, it delves into the psychological impacts of mourning, setting the stage for the subsequent books, The Case of California and Nazi Psychoanalysis. This work combines elements of psychoanalysis and cultural critique, offering a thought-provoking examination of how loss shapes identity and understanding.

For years, noted writer Laurence A. Rickels often found himself compared to novelist Philip K. Dick—though in fact Rickels had never read any of the science fiction writer’s work. When he finally read his first Philip K. Dick novel, while researching for his recent book The Devil Notebooks , it prompted a prolonged immersion in Dick’s writing as well as a recognition of Rickels’s own long-documented intellectual pursuits. The result of this engagement is I Think I Philip K. Dick , a profound thought experiment that charts the wide relevance of the pulp sci-fi author and paranoid visionary.  I Think I Philip K. Dick explores the science fiction author’s meditations on psychic reality and psychosis, Christian mysticism, Eastern religion, and modern spiritualism. Covering all of Dick’s science fiction, Rickels corrects the lack of scholarly interest in the legendary Californian author and, ultimately, makes a compelling case for the philosophical and psychoanalytic significance of Philip K. Dick’s popular and influential science fiction.

Focusing on the changing image of the West Coast through such varied social and cultural artifacts as bodybuilding, group therapy, suicide cults, milk-carton images of missing children, teenage slang, and surf music, Laurence Rickels offers a dizzying psychohistory of the twentieth century as crystallized in the symbolic configuration called California and considered in relation to German modernism, national socialism, and Freudian psychoanalysis.