BEDLAM’S DOOR
Nonfiction King of the Puerto Ricans BEDLAM’S DOOR: True Tales of Madness and Hope By Mark Rubinstein, M.D. 296 pp. Thunder Lake Press Reviewed by David E. Hoekenga, M.D. This collection of stories from Doctor Rubinstein’s practice of psychiatry is truly far stranger than fiction. For example, the one entitled the ‘Man of Means’ tells of a very well dressed man in a soiled and threadbare suit hanging out outside the Regency Hotel. He carried a gold-plated cigarette case and matching gold-plated lighter. An elegant briefcase was filled with a few million dollars in Monopoly money. Rubinstein diagnosed this man as “paranoid with delusions of grandeur.” One of the admirable parts of this book is that the author includes an afterword with a follow-up on each client. Several psychiatrists in New York had seen Man of Means, but none could track down his past. Rubinstein wrote, “I feel in love with psychiatry because each patient—though sharing human commonalities—had a unique personal story....