Laszlo Kreizler
Dr Laszlo Kreizler is the enigmatic child and forensic psychologist who leads the team of five investigators in solving crimes around New York in the 1890s.
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Biography
Laszlo Kreizler is by far the most developed character of the series. Some critics have even noted that The Alienist seems to be as much about its main character as about the quest for a murderer. Caleb Carr has said that his intent was to have a protagonist who shared several qualities with the killer he was pursuing. This would lead the protagonist to become emotionally involved in the case, and even falter by unconsciously basing assumptions on personal experience rather than actual evidence. This is the basis for Laszlo Kreizler; however, his character does not end here.
Dr. Kreizler is an alienist, or psychiatrist, who specializes in child and criminal psychology. His work primarily revolves around his theory of "context," the notion that an individual’s personality and behaviour is determined by his or her childhood experiences, and he is obsessed with studying the effects of disturbing childhood experiences on the adult psyche. Most of his time is spent at the Kreizler Institute for Children, an institute for the study and treatment of children with emotional and psychological disorders which he founded in 1885. He also frequents several New York hospitals to do assessments of mental patients, and, being the leading expert in New York on criminal insanity, is often called as an expert witness. Dr. Kreizler is a bachelor; however, he shares his home with Stevie Taggert and Cyrus Montrose, both former patients of his who now act as his henchmen. Throughout the majority of The Alienist, he also shares his home with his housekeeper, Mary Palmer, whom we later learn he is in love with; however, she is killed in the latter part of the novel. This is the only woman he has ever loved, to our knowledge, but he was once engaged to a woman named Frances Blake; the engagement was later called off.
Dr. Kreizler was born in Germany, and immigrated with his German father and Hungarian mother to America as a small child to escape monarchist rule after the 1848 German Revolution failed. He was forced to speak German at home throughout his childhood, and therefore speaks in a mild German accent with a trace of a Hungarian accent (which he somehow acquired, even though he apparently wasn’t allowed to speak Hungarian as a child). His parents were wealthy and highly-regarded in upper-class New York society; John describes his father as "gregarious" and his mother as "vivacious," and tells of the large parties they would hold to which European socialites would be invited. He explains, "we all loved going there"(A 301).
However, this was only appearance; behind closed doors, Kreizler’s father was an alcoholic who was physically abusive to his wife and children. Although not much is known of the nature of the abuse, it appears to have been severe. From The Angel of Darkness, we know that his father was beating him when he was as young as three years old, and when he was eight, his father shattered his left arm and subsequently threw him down a flight of stairs. His arm was permanently damaged, and as an adult, it continually causes him pain; Stevie explains, "The recurring pain in the scarred bones and muscle, along with the underdeveloped state of the arm, served to keep the trials what the Doctor’d been through during his childhood pretty constantly in his mind"(AoD 403). There is reason to believe that Dr. Kreizler’s father was also emotionally abusive; he tells John in The Alienist that as a child, his father would often tell him, "That I didn’t know as much as I thought I did. That I thought I knew how people should behave, that I thought I was a better person than he was. But one day—one day, he said, I would know that I wasn’t. Until then, I’d be nothing more than an—impostor…"(A 449).
Laszlo’s mother does not seem to have offered any solace. He reveals that she was emotionally neglectful: she never attempted to stop his father from abusing him. He explains, "Although my mother cared for her children, their welfare was simply not her first priority"(AoD 322). Dr. Kreizler reveals in The Angel of Darkness that he formed a romantic attachment to Frances Blake because she reminded him of his mother, and he subconsciously wanted to change her, since he had been unable to change his mother. He eventually realized this, and broke off his engagement to Blake.
As for Laszlo’s temperament as a young child, it’s difficult to say. The only analysis we have of his character as a child is the following observation, made by John in The Alienist: "when we were boys, he was always at something, and always so deadly serious. It was somewhat amusing, in those days"(A 233). He was obviously as obsessive as he is as an adult; however, the second part of the observation is a bit more opaque. "Deadly serious" suggests that he was probably quiet and didn’t play with other children much, and "amusing" could suggest that children found him amusing and mocked him. Most abused children become either socially and emotionally withdrawn or very aggressive, and Kreizler’s adult character tends more toward emotional withdrawal than aggression, which suggests he may have been a withdrawn child. However, all of this is, of course, speculative.
His adult character is much less speculative. One of Dr. Kreizler’s most obvious qualities is his intelligence; one reviewer describes him as "preternaturally brilliant." He is very liberal-minded and his ideas and opinions are quite progressive for the time period he lives in, which puts him at constant odds with his colleagues and associates. He is a work-a-holic, and devotes the majority of his time to his career. When he returns to his institute in The Angel of Darkness after being forced to leave for 60 days, Stevie tells us, "As for the Doctor, once his name'd been cleared he dived back into affairs at the institute like a man what'd been deprived of life's necessities."
His religious and political opinions are unknown; he tells J.P. Morgan in The Alienist that his "religious opinions are a private matter"(A 367). However, he does not attend church, and it seems that the general view is that he is an atheist. Whether or not he truly is an atheist is up for debate. Atheism and agnosticism were highly popular among the intellectuals of the time, especially after the advent of such philosophers as Darwin and Nietzsche. However, he does use phrases such as "God help us," which could be simply colloquial, but could also be meant literally. The following excerpt could also suggest that he retains some sort of spiritual belief:
"Do you think Matthew Hatch will reach out from the grave, Moore?" the Doctor needled. "To rebuke you for disturbing his eternal rest?"
"Maybe," Mr Moore answered. "Something like that. You don't seem too damned troubled along those lines, Kreizler, I must say."
"Perhaps I have a different understanding of what we've just done," the Doctor answered, his voice growing more serious. "Perhaps I believe that Matthew Hatch's soul has not yet known peace, eternal or otherwise - and that we represent his only chance of attaining it."
Either way, it is obvious that if Dr. Kreizler isn’t an atheist or agnostic, he isn’t very religious. As for his political stance, his ideas seem to fall left of centre, which suggests his political opinions probably do as well, but this, too, is unknown.
Dr. Kreizler is also very emotionally intelligent, and highly perceptive to the emotions of others. Because of this, he is the typical psychologist in that he is constantly "studying" people to determine their emotional state, and is quick to diagnose people. He has a particular soft spot for troubled children, to whom he dedicates most of his time. There is some insight into his passionate dedication to troubled children in The Angel of Darkness. When cross-examining Kreizler, Clarence Darrow suggests, after proving that he is aware of Dr. Kreizler’s troubled childhood, that Kreizler dedicates himself to ‘saving’ children in an effort to ‘save’ himself, and that finding explanations for other children’s disturbing experiences helps him to explain what happened to him in his own childhood. Dr. Kreizler seems to think that Darrow is right about him: he comments, "[…] he was wrong—about Libby Hatch. And this case. But about me?"(AoD 593). Whether or not this is true, it is probable that Laszlo’s childhood played a large part in his choice of profession. Because we’re totally insane, we feel it necessary to add here an excerpt from an episode of Frasier which seems to speak to Laszlo’s interest in psychiatry perfectly:
Tewksbury: So, you were drawn to psychiatry not because you like to help people, but because you feared them.
Frasier: I feared them?
Tewksbury: Psychiatry gives you objectivity. Objectivity gives you emotional distance. Distance makes you feel safe.
Dr. Kreizler is indeed emotionally distant. This is one of the first things the reader is told about him; at the very beginning of The Alienist, John Moore describes him as "perplexing to so many who knew him" because of his "peculiar quality of emotional distance"(A 13). He is reserved and introverted, and never discusses his emotions. When speaking of topics that he is emotionally close to, such as his childhood or his love for Mary Palmer, he discusses them in a solely objective manner. He avoids his emotions instead of dealing with them properly, which makes it difficult for him to think rationally when his emotions overwhelm him. For example, in The Alienist, he starts to somewhat identify with the murderer he is pursuing, and becomes emotionally involved in the case. He begins to make judgments on the killer based solely on his own personal experience and shuts out every other option, which, as John points out, doesn’t "seem to make sense, given Laszlo’s professional opinions"(A 270).
Furthermore, although he often comes off as assertive, it is clear that Dr. Kreizler is plagued by a lack of self-confidence, which is not surprising, given what he claims his father "always said" to him as a child. John comments, "He’s full of doubts about his own judgment and abilities. I never really understood before how much he’s tortured by that—self-doubt. It’s hidden most of the time, but it goes back"(A 470). Dr. Kreizler is also quite self-reproachful, which is again probably a result of his having been abused as a child. One scene that is telling of this is the scene in The Alienist immediately after Mary is killed and Cyrus and Stevie are injured. Laszlo immediately blames himself, and when John tells him he’s not responsible for the incident, he replies, "Don’t tell me I’m not responsible for it! […] Who then, if not me? It’s my own vanity, just as Comstock said. I’ve been in a blind fury, trying to prove my precious points, oblivious of any danger it might pose. […] We’ve been hunting a killer, John, but the killer isn’t the real danger—I am!"(A 450).
Dr. Kreizler, however, is not an entirely dark character; he is, essentially, a kind, empathetic, and selfless person. He is deeply distressed by the corrupt society he lives in, and is devoted to making whatever difference he can. As John puts it, he is "determined to wring satisfaction from the worrisome world around him"(A 34). Very few of his personal interests are known; however, we do know that he very much enjoys the opera, and is a bit of a music connoisseur. He also has quite a taste for fine food, and seems to take his consumption endeavours quite seriously: Charlie Delmonico reserves Kreizler and his colleagues a blue dining room because he recalls Dr. Kreizler saying that he "found neither olive nor crimson conducive to digestion"(A 121). And, despite his serious nature, Laszlo Kreizler has a dry sense of humour as well as a quite playful streak; Stevie describes, in The Angel of Darkness, "I didn't know how agitated my movements had become 'til the Doctor threw a playful arm round my head, telling me it was the only way he could think of to keep my skull from exploding"(AoD 317).