Dry Ice by Stephen White

Dry Ice by Stephen White, features his protagonist, Alan Gregory.  I think I've read an Alan Gregory novel once before, though it was several years ago. 


Alan Gregory is a psychologist, and in the novels he uses his psychological expertise to unravel mysteries.  It sounds from this that perhaps he uses psychology tricks to catch criminals, but it's fascinating in that it's much more the passive, therapeutic approach he takes that permits him to listen, encourage confidences and piece together the things he has learned.


Dry Ice deals with an escaped prisoner and a potential frame-up centered on Dr. Gregory.  The prisoner escaped from an institution for offenders suffering from mental health issues, and he had been confined there after a previous attack on Dr. Gregory's wife.  I suspect it is a sequel of sorts to an earlier novel, though I didn't feel as though I missed any key aspects of the novel from being unfamiliar with the earlier adventure.


What is interesting to me, is the shift, almost within the novel itself, of Dr. Gregory's views on appropriate treatment for violent offenders.  He indicates in the novel that he previously held the view that violent offenders can't be held solely responsible for the matters occurring within their own minds that are beyond their control.  He later comes to the view that everyone is responsible for the choices they make, and becomes more willing to embrace the concept of punishment (up to and including a death sentence) for people with mental health issues.


It's curious coming from a protagonist like Dr. Gregory, since he is very mild mannered and almost passive, while holding very, very firmly to his concept of his professional obligations.


It's an interesting and tricky question I think, and I would have enjoyed even more discussion on the topic.  I'm a little unclear, in the context of the novel, whether it is a true shifting of Dr. Gregory's beliefs, or if it is further evidence of his decomposing state of mind after the death of a patient.  In Dry Ice Dr. Gregory is clearly having trouble coping.  He is alcohol dependent to the point of having a problem, and later  he blackmails a fellow psychologist into breaching patient confidentiality.  Given the extremely high value I have seen this character place on confidentiality, to the point of maintaining it at risk to his own health and personal relationships, I have to think this was used as a way of showing just badly Alan Gregory's judgment has been impaired.


So is his shift of view part of impaired judgment, or part of an insight he has gathered over time?  I think it's part of his stress and willingness to abandon principles at this stage of his life.  I don't think he has a principled reason for abandoning his prior conviction that offenders deserve treatment, rather than punishment for actions which are a result of mental conditions beyond their control.  I think that seeing the consequence of the offender tracking him down and endangering his family, his abstract principle collided with his reality and he couldn't support it any more.


I look forward to later novels to discover whether Mr. White can create a situation where sympathy is created for an antagonist, to see whether it shifts Alan back to his original view, or if Alan takes the vigilante approach to dispense "justice" to a dangerous offender, whether or not suffering from a disease Alan devotes his life to helping to treat.