Psychotic Memoirs: Coming Out the Journey Within

It was to be an adventure - breaking with the old and finding out who I - David - really was. What begins as an optimistic coming of age story with promises of new friendships and romance, gradually evolves into the principle character and author (David) loosing touch with the outside world. This is initially through perceived stigma and paranoia surrounding sexuality and culminates in alienation and full-scale psychosis. David completes many milestones in his memoirs. He always wanted to live abroad, learn a new language and become immersed in a new culture and this is made possible with his studies as a law and language student. He explores his newfound home in Spain and in the process makes new friends and aquaintances. With one of these (Alejandero) he shares a particularly strong, intimate attachment but at this point the experiences have already begun to turn somewhat darker. This leads David to examine the concepts of self and reality, the bonds between people and the very ideas of life and being from a state of altered awareness. Entertaining with elements of humour and pathos the memoirs are at times poetic and poignant and lead to a philosophical and metaphysical journey within the human psyche and beyond. Although David is not alone during his psychological problems, by the end his internal exile is almost complete and the deconstruction of what it means to be a human being (living, loving, hoping, dying) poses many existential questions which we all may face at different stages in our lives.

Though I’m supposed to be writing a biography of myself here I am not an author who seeks publicity for me due to the honest approach I take to my writing but do believe I should at least offer something to readers in order to promote what has been my pet-project for some time: Psychotic Memoirs. The bare-bones of Psychotic memoirs (coming out the journey within) were completed quite some time ago but there has been a lot of tweaking and until recently the project was not something I thought might be completed or at least not in the short-term. I have carried the manuscript with me on my travels throughout the years and have shown it to a lot of friends and aquaintances - with some very positive feed back and, surprisingly enough, empathy with me in the book. As can be seen after finishing Psychotic Memoirs (Coming out the journey within) there is a promise of more to come but this current part of the memoirs is about time spent in a suburb of Madrid called Alcala de Henares. Some readers may notice that some of the references are not exactly present day such as watching James Cameron’s Titanic in the cinema (although ironically - this year of 2012 it could seem contemporary as Titanic returns in 3d) suffice to say my life did not finish at the end of the book and I went on to graduate and get work. This said things have not exactly been easy nor have they worked out quite as planned in my earlier years before and during the events in the memoirs and some of the themes of the Psychosis have been revisited - a promise of another volume or two perhaps?: -) Despite having held tight on attempting to publish, the themes of the work are still current and will most likely continue to be. I will say something of who is the principle voice in the book - me at 20, a university law and language student attending a Spanish university with a view to learning law in another jurisdiction and improving my Spanish language skills. Like a lot of students of my age then - partying and drinking were almost part of the curriculum. I went to Madrid (un poco verde) - a little green - as in possibly slightly immature and not very street-wise hence putting the work in the coming of age genre. This being the case there are themes which are pertinent to people of all ages and some of the philosophical conundrums encountered are universal if one looks too deep. I intend to continue writing - should another of my works become available this ＂biography＂ shall surely be updated.