Red Orc's Rage
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| Author | Philip José Farmer |
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| Country |
 United States
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| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
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Publication date
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1991 |
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Red Orc's Rage (1991) is a recursive science fiction novel and part of the "World of Tiers" series of novels by Philip José Farmer. The plot of the book was inspired by the work of American psychiatrist A.James Giannini, M.D, who used earlier books in Farmer's series as role-playing tools and aids to self-analysis. This technique was developed at Yale University and further expanded by Dr. Giannini at Ohio State University. The technique is properly called "projective psychotherapy". It involves immersing the patients in a fictional world which is accessible to the psychiatrist. It is subject to alternative interpretation but not to change. By utilizing a structured fantasy world the subconscious can be directly accessed without confronting resistances of the conscious mind.
This novel was written by Farmer in consultation with Dr. Giannini. It depicts a delusional adolescent boy who is treated with projective psychotherapy. In this case the works of fiction are the previously published novels in the "World of Tiers" series. Characters and locations are recursively introduced in the mind of the protagonist. He travels into the World of Tiers although it is never certain if he is delusional or has found a gateway to an alternative universe. The psychiatrist in the novel then analyzes this alternative reality rather than the world he shares with his patient. This delusion is prefabricated by Farmer and not subject to modification. In the "Afterword" section Dr. Giannini discusses the real-world application of this novel. It is a fictional work based on real-world therapy of actual patients. This fictional depiction of real-world therapeutic encounters with fiction worlds is then intended, once again,to be applied to real-world treatment.
Jim Grimson is a troubled youth undergoing therapy in a psychiatric hospital who is encouraged to role-play Red Orc, a character in a science fiction novel. Jim finds himself actually transported to the fictional World of Tiers, entering the mind and body of the character he role-played in the hospital. In the World of Tiers Red Orc/Jim struggles with an abusive father, a situation mirroring his real-world problems
The character has Oedipal issues with his father, an unemployed crane operator in the fictional "Belmont City", somewhere near Youngstown, Ohio. The steel mills are closing permanently and the family is facing a bleak economic future. Jim struggles with class-issues at his high-school. In academics, athletics, and student society he is a non-achiever, recapitulating his father's position in the adult world. His only outlets are science fiction, the fantasies invented by his grandfather and some bizarre hallucination which occasionally intrude into his world.
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