Significance

A dysfunctional family with a strange history has produced Vincent, a self destructive young man who has found his own ways of coping with his history and his madness.A few months previously he was admitted to a psychiatric ward and has been interviewed by various consultant psychiatrists with varying degrees of failure since then.Now he meets the determined behavioural psychologist Michael Williamson. What emerges over their sessions is a more complex, not to mention far darker, tale than the learned Mr Williamson could ever have expected when he took over the case file.Also included in the book are ten shorter poems that explore related territory, including the chilling The Lady in the Locked Room and the powerful forerunner of Significance, Razor Blades and Other Painkillers.