Spies, Lies & Psychosis is a work of non-fiction best suited to mature readers owing to the frank discussion of sexual situations. This candid and compelling memoir penned by author Joan Kopczynski chronicles the author's most challenging years when mental illness had her in its grip. From a successful life in San Francisco, working for the CIA, and dating an FBI agent, Joan's world is shattered by betrayal and humiliation, leading her to move back to the Northwest. Suffering from paranoia and depression, she seeks help at The Mental Health Clinic in Spokane, but her journey is far from over. Battling schizoaffective disorder, Joan faces more obstacles, including a pipe bomb attack on her psychiatrist, bankruptcy, and poverty.

This memoir, Spies, Lies & Psychosis, is my unsettling, and compelling true-life story that details my terrifying and disorienting descent into mental illness. At age 25, after leaving my job at the CIA, my life became a series of seemingly disconnected events fraught with dangerous lies, betrayal, manipulation, and deceit, pushing me into this sort of chaotic twilight between sanity and insanity. Unable to trust those around me after discovering their repeated deceptions, I embarked on a harrowing journey to reveal the truth, once and for all, about those family, friends, spies, and lovers who appear to be gaslighting me into thinking nothing I believe is real. But are they right? Is my truth a lie? Or are their lies the truth?

Spies, Lies & Psychosis is a riveting cross between The Bourne Identity and A Beautiful Mind, with elements of both: spies, family drama, mental illness, and a search for the truth. Everyone knows someone with some form of mental illness, and this book is the closest any reader will ever come to actually experiencing their thought process, up close and personal.