Seward is the administrator of an insane asylum not far from Count Dracula's first English home, Carfax. Throughout the novel, Seward conducts ambitious interviews with one of his patients, R. M. Renfield, in order to understand better the nature of life-consuming psychosis, or as he calls it, zoophagous. As a psychiatrist, Seward enjoys using the most up-to-date equipment, including using a recording phonograph to record his interviews with his patients and his own notes. Several chapters of the novel consist of transcriptions of Seward's phonograph recordings. One of the main contributions made by Dr. Seward is his recordings of the events depicted from his personal perspective as a doctor; allowing the reader to gain a scientific understanding of the behaviour of vampirism through his behavioural analysis of Renfield.