bi-annual get-together at Adolfville is Omar Diamond. The Skitz town is named Joan d'Arc, "poor materially, but rich in eternal values." The Heebs consist of people with hebephrenia (disorganized schizophrenia). Their settlement is Gandhitown. To the other clans, they are useful only for manual labour. Their representative is Jacob Simion. Gandhitown looks like "an inhabited garbage dump of cardboard dwellings." Like the Skitzes, some of the Heebs are religious visionaries as well; but they are inclined to produce ascetic saints, whereas the schizophrenic group produce dogmatists. An example is "the famous Heeb saint, Ignatz Ledebur, who radiated spirituality as he wandered from town to town, spreading the warmth of his harmless Heeb personality." Another notable Heeb character is Sarah Apostoles; she together with Omar Diamond and Ignatz Ledebur form "the so-called Holy Triumvirate." The Polys have polymorphic schizophrenia. Annette Golding is the Poly delegate to the supreme council and their settlement is called Hamlet Hamlet. They are the creative members of society, producing new ideas. The children from every clan on Alpha III M2 were born Polys, went to their common, central school as Polys, did not become differentiated until perhaps their tenth or eleventh year. Some never became differentiated, though, hinting that, perhaps, some of them do not actually have mental disorders at all. The Ob-Coms are the ones with obsessive-compulsive disorder, their delegate is Ingred Hibbler. The name of their location is not given. They are the clerks and office holders of the society, the ritualistic functionaries, with no original ideas. Their conservatism balances the radical quality of the Polys and gives the society stability. The Deps have clinical depression. Their representative to the supreme council is Dino Watters and the name of their town is Cotton Mather Estates, where they live "in endless dark gloom." Reception Writing in the Guardian in 2014, Sandra Newman cites Alphane as an example of "the Wild West era of science fiction, (when) plots could go anywhere or nowhere", stating that the plot is "ridiculous" and "offensive", and that "it has an effect you simply cannot produce with a book that is well written." References External links Official PKDick website review Cover gallery and bibliographic references 1964 science fiction novels 1964 American novels Ace Books books Alpha Centauri in fiction American science fiction novels Novels about mental health Novels by Philip K. Dick