K-PAX

K-PAX is the name of the first novel in the K-PAX series by Gene Brewer.

The series deals with the experiences on Earth of a man named Prot (rhymes with "wrote"). It is written in the first person from the point of view of Prot's psychiatrist.

K-PAX was adapted into a theatrical film by the same name, released in 2001.

Series

Synopsis

In 1990, a white male is picked up by the New York Police after being found bending over the victim of a mugging at Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan. After responding to the police questions with somewhat strange answers, he is transferred to Bellevue Hospital for evaluation. Although not physically ill, he is found to harbour the strange delusion that he is from a planet called K-PAX in the constellation of Lyra. The patient, who calls himself "prot" (intentionally lower-case to reflect the insignificance of an individual life form in the universe), is eventually transferred to the Manhattan Psychiatric Institute (MPI), where he becomes the patient of Dr. Gene Brewer.

K-PAX (film)

K-PAX is a 2001 American science fiction-mystery film directed by Iain Softley and starring Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges, Mary McCormack and Alfre Woodard. The screenplay, written by Gene Brewer and Charles Leavitt, is based on the novel K-PAX by Brewer about a psychiatric patient who claims to be an alien from the planet K-PAX. During his treatment, the patient demonstrates an outlook on life that ultimately proves inspirational for his fellow patients and especially for his psychiatrist.

Plot

After claiming he is an extraterrestrial from the planet 'K-PAX', 1,000 light years away in the Lyra constellation, prot (uncapitalized and pronounced with a long O) is committed to the Psychiatric Institute of Manhattan. There, psychiatrist Dr. Mark Powell attempts to cure him of his apparent delusions. However, prot is unwavering in his ability to provide cogent answers to questions about himself, K-PAX and its civilizations. Dr. Powell introduces him to a group of astrophysicists, to whom prot displays a level of knowledge that puzzles them.