Paul Schreber is a man who wants to go home - but can't. He is a man stymied by an illness he doesn't understand - and sometimes doesn't even know he has. He has to deal with past traumas, a disintegrating family, his own fantasies of persecution - as well as the very real forces marshalled against him. As Playthings delves deeper into Schreber's disturbed mind, the book also unearths the roots of the great ills in the 20th century, the psychological structure of fascism, the cancer of anti-Semitism, and the abuse of institutional power.

Paul Schreber is a man who wants to go home - but can't. He is a man stymied by an illness he doesn't understand - and sometimes doesn't even know he has. He has to deal with past traumas, a disintegrating family, his own fantasies of persecution - as well as the very real forces marshalled against him. As Playthings delves deeper into Schreber's disturbed mind, the book also unearths the roots of the great ills in the 20th century, the psychological structure of fascism, the cancer of anti-Semitism, and the abuse of institutional power.