Author Description

Michael Joyce got off on playing in his band, chasing girls, and completing his Ph.D. in psychology. Then the Vietnam war heated up. Drafted, commissioned as an officer, he soon found himself in the jungle taking a life at close range. Strangely, he didn’t seem to mind, feeling nothing one way or the other. He experienced the same innocent calm in subsequent kills, much the way a cheetah must after slaughtering its prey. This book is both a lifelong clinical case history and an adventurous tale about a clinical psychologist, decorated Vietnam veteran, and sleeper dark agent. Life begins in the humid and stifling heat of a Bronx tenement during WWII. Twenty-eight years later, he emerges from the teeming jungle of Vietnam, alarmingly scathed but alive. Looking back, in his 70’s, he gives us a blisteringly honest account in an attempt to chronicle his rip-roaring life. Psychological self-discovery and some healing from chronic childhood abuse, a dysfunctional family, combat and PTSD accompanies a rambunctious wild ride. Like all humans, he is both wonderful and awful. Hated by a violently jealous father, adored by a narcissistic bomb shell mother, he developed anti-social traits. At an early age, he developed a fixation on women and all things erotic. His sex exploits are frequent, at times graphic, and fun, much to his mother’s dismay. We see his demons and criminal behavior, along with a buoyancy and loving generosity toward people. This is not a sanitized adventure. This is a must read for students of human psychology, people fascinated by the human condition, and those who enjoy sizzling tip-of-the-spear adventure. Watch for Book two of this three-part series entitled: The Night Swimmer: How To Get Into Prison 1971-1996