Pharmakon (novel)

Pharmakon is a 2008 novel written by the author Dirk Wittenborn. Though fictional, it was greatly influenced by Wittenborn's relationship with his father, who was a psychopharmacologist.

The novel has three different parts. Book One concerns a psychologist, Will Friedrich, in the competitive Yale psychology department of the 1950s and his pursuit of an anti-depressant and the serious effects it has on a student. "Book Two" occurs seven years later and is told from the perspective of Will's newborn son, Zach, who is eventually kidnapped by the student (who had apparently murdered one of Friedrich's sons). Book Three followed a grown-up Zach, now recovering from drug addiction, as he tries to piece his life together and figure out what has happened to his family.

The novel Pharmakon is divided into three parts. The first part of the novel, titled “Book 1”, takes place in the 1950s and centers around Will Friedrich; a middle aged, nontenured professor of psychology at Yale University. Though extremely smart and known around campus for his ability to take a set of data and “calculate the standard deviation in his head”, Will is having a hard time figuring out an idea to climb the social ladder into the upper circles of the Yale elite. This all changes when will overhears Dr. Bunny Winton about an exotic plant called “gai kau dong” or, “The Way Home.” She describes how this plant has been used by a native tribe in New Guinea to calm people after traumatic events. He and Winton begin testing on the same plants used by the New Guinea tribe. After isolating the active ingredient in the plant, Winton and Friedrich test the drug on rats and experience positive results.

One of their test subjects, Casper Gedsic, is originally described as a “bearded with pimples and peach fuzz, too shy to look a person in the eye.” almost immediately begins to see a change; Casper’s new found confidence enables him to clean up his appearance and befriend Whitney Bouchard, a rich, Yale football player.

After the drug trial concludes, Friedrich received a call from an intoxicated Whitney, talking about how Casper had changed ever since he stopped taking his medication and how he had created a list of everybody he blamed for his current state of despair, with Friedrich and Dr. Winton being at the top. Casper appears at Friedrich’s house while Will was outside with his wife and children. With a gun at his side, Casper begins to approach, but then changes his mind and leaves.

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