Literature of the Americas Literature of the Americas 2541-7894 2542-243X IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-7894-2024-16-147-168 Research Article Articles American Double / American Psycho and the Writer’s Block 2024 Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 The article focuses on American fiction and detective thrillers where the writer and his double feature as central characters. Such a combination has not previously received special attention. The divided mind provides a wide range of possibilities for fascination and exploring the fundamental fears of fragmentation and potential destruction of the Self. In Stephen King’s novella “Secret Window, Secret Garden” (1990), crime, duplicity, madness and dissociative amnesia are integrated into the story of the writer's block. The present article, among other things, analyzes the adaptation of the novella — David Koepp’s Secret Window, 2004. Besides, it highlights the changes that the script underwent. Koepp came up with his own ending that was radically different from the Epilogue of King's story. Alongside with madness proper, King's horror and Koepp's film deconstruct the writer’s block as the result of unresolved traumas and the cause of a whole bunch of pathologies, as well as the fear of breakdown. The novella and its screen version are, in fact, phenomenological studies of mental disorders. A close comparative analysis shows that the film offers a rare example of the superiority of adaptation over the original. A particular attention in the article is paid to the imagery of ears of corn in the film, functioning both as a cannibalistic grotesque and as a visual metaphor of success. 1. Baumbach 2015 — Baumbach, Sibylle. Literature and Fascination. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. 2. Black 2018 — Black, Sue. All That Remains: A Life in Death. New York: Doubleday, 2018. 3. A Companion to Literature 2012 — A Companion to Literature, Film, and Adaptation, edited by D. Cartmell. 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