Monkey On His Back

A man named John Zarwell undergoes experimental comanalysis with psychoanalyst Milton Bergstrom, repeatedly entering drug-induced reenactments that unfold as disorienting pursuit scenes, shifting identities, and surreal, dimensionless spaces. The narrative alternates between office debriefings and dreamlike episodes in which Zarwell confronts duplicate selves, violent encounters, and fragmented memories; small actions such as hiding a briefcase become focal clues. Treatment aims to isolate relevant material from his amnesia, but revelations remain tantalizingly incomplete, leaving his sense of self and the origin of the haunting visions ambiguous. Themes include memory, identity, and the uneasy interplay of technology and psychotherapy.