A young musician regrets admitting himself to a psychiatric ward in 1973 and as a result, devotes himself to the chaotic and sometimes outrageous world of self-help psychiatric reform activism.

BACKGROUND:
A uniquely updated, “catcher in the rye dive-bombs the cuckoo’s nest”, satirical dramedy, based upon a true story. Rising up from the psychiatric pathos, tinsel-town carnival and awe-inspiring grandeur of Niagara Falls during the 1970’s and early 80’s, Rafe D’Amore and his associates, organize themselves and contribute to some much needed hospital and community based psychiatric reform initiatives, throughout North America.

PREMISE:
Locally successful musician, but conflicted 19 year old Rafe, has some important choices to make in order to chart his path forward as a young adult. He loves music, but is well aware of its impracticality and he and his band mates have all been accepted into different universities. Complicating matters is Rafe’s growing psychological dependency upon marijuana, which begins to play upon his naturally creative tendencies, drawing him into a world of new age literature and mystical fascination. Realizing that if he tries to express his more extreme, alternate thought processes to family, friends or co-workers, they may well consider him insane, he decides to discreetly drive down to the local hospital and consult the “experts”, unaware of the still primitive nature of 1970’s psychiatry. Instead of a discerning psychologist, the reception staff call his parent’s family doctor, who arrives in a hurried huff, disgusted with Rafe’s pot smoking. Within 30 seconds Dr. Knobb declares Rafe’s condition to be “much more serious” than what he had imagined, has him committed and orders large doses of haloperidol be injected. What ensues is a black tragicomedy of psycho-spiritual nomadity, debilitating medical blunders, constructive rebellion, emotional upheaval, tender friendships, stormy romances and the ultimate growth and triumph of the human spirit.