Dr. Mark Ahriman

Dr. Mark Ahriman is a fictional character and a villain in the Dean Koontz novel, False Memory. He is a sexually sadistic sociopath, who works as a psychiatrist. He drugs and brainwashed his patients, before either repeatedly raping them or ordering them to commit murders (or suicide), simply to amuse himself.

He also keeps his father's eyes in a jar - not as a means of reminding himself what he has done is wrong, but simply because he killed his father and took his eyes, as a means of understanding why he himself cannot cry. This also explains why he likes to lick tears (because it is a sexual fetish).

Martie and Dusty Rhodes eventually discover that they have been gradually brainwashed by Ahriman - before Ahriman later orders Martie's friend Susan Jagger to commit suicide, by slashing her wrists, after he discovers that she videotaped herself being raped by him.

He establishes control, sending patients of his into a certain state of consciousness - by stating a name, and then reading a short haiku to them. He says that, by ordering patients to commit horrific crimes, he can use this as a means of forcing legislation to make the world a better place - as a means of trying to justify the evil things he does.

He is eventually killed by a patient of his, who had a fear of Keanu Reeves, because of Reeves' Matrix character - after Ahriman made the mistake of convincing her that the Matrix is in fact real, and the woman needed to hide for a time.