Considering that the title of the nonfiction, Letters to Lauren: Journal of a Mental Patient is oxymoronic, (no writings can be both letters and journal), the truth of it can only be applicable to one in some form of mental distress. In credit to a civilized society, there's no hard and fast criterion that constitutes insanity, but in this instance, a court with all the facts, committed Arthur L to a mental institution for veterans, and for that they have my applause.
Also, in truth, before being committed, Arthur L was walking, talking and socializing with those in his orbit much like the mentally disturb moves around in yours- only he proved less successful at deception, and in that, is the game of it.
In other words, Arthur L's a functional individual that misfires with the regularity of one that you'd naturally think to be crazy- that is if you're around him enough see or notice the frequency that he's out of your comfort zone. Then there's the real problem: he prefers himself just the way that he is- the way that put him in a mental institution.
We've all heard "there's reason in madness," and step by step, "according to Arthur L," via self- evaluations, he explains the reasons in his madness, and too often, after the explanation, the insanity's even more apparent.
Unbeknownst to most, anger's a manifestation of pain, and Arthur L has a lot of anger, consequently, a lot of pain. He's angry that the courts feels he needs restructuring and holds him hostage in a mental institution; he's angry that they're doing it because they think it's the only way that he can be helped; he's angry because he believes they're right, and he's angry that he couldn't get himself right before it became public knowledge that he wasn't.
Struggling through nightmares and tears, his fool stances and wild pivots; his irrational convictions and farfetched philosophies; his heinous crimes and unwitting naiveté, convinces Arthur L of the s