This is a story of self-obsession narrated by the point of view of a psychiatris
t, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time. As a psychiatrist in a t
op-security mental hospital in the 1950s, Peter Cleave has made a study of what
he calls 'the catastrophic love affair characterized by sexual obsession.' His e
xperience is extensive, and he is never surprised. Until, that is, he comes relu
ctantly to accept that the wife of one of his colleagues has embarked on such an
affair...
