Behind the Gates of Gomorrah

Book excerpt: Seager was no stranger to locked psych wards when he accepted a job at California's Gorman State hospital, known locally as "Gomorrah," but nothing could have prepared him for what he encountered when he stepped through its gates. Unit C, where Seager was assigned, was reserved for the mass murderers, serial killers, and the real-life Hannibal Lecters of the world. This account of his rookie year blends memoir with a narrative science, explaining both the aberrant mind and his own determination to remain in a job with a perilously steep learning curve.