Leonid Reiniger

Background
The Reiniger family emigrated from Germany in the early months of 1939, fleeing to the United States amid the building fervor of the Nazi war movement. Leopold Reiniger, the patriarch of the family, devoted the remaining years of his life to settling the extended clan in their new home and proving themselves loyal and hardworking Americans, going so far as to encourage his sons and daughters to marry those of non-German decent to "blend in". To an extent this worked, as the Reiniger family received little attention or scorn from their new neighbors, even during the height of World War II.

The various branches of the expatriate family drifted apart as years went by, settling across the country. Leonid's father Heinrich, following the emergence of a hearty psychological community in California, moved to San Fransisco in 1973. Amid a rising belief that the human mind was restricted and could reach higher levels of thought through pharmacological assistance, Heinrich became an avid pursuant of "expanded consciousness" under the effects of LSD. It was during this period that he met and fell in love with a woman clinging to the fading Hippie culture, whom he tried to share his beliefs and drugs with as a sign of affection.

The woman, Elisabeth Hollander, initially agreed with Heinrich's philosophies, though unfortunately, not for long after discovering she was with child in late 1975. After begging Heinrich to stop taking LSD and try to be what she considered a "normal" husband and father, she was rebuffed and derided by her lover, who accused her of being too small minded for him. Determined not to let the child she intended to have suffer for her mistakes, Elisabeth left Heinrich and California, drifting across the country for the next few months, taking what odd jobs she could get.

Near the end of her pregnancy, she was contacted by Heinrich's father Leopold and informed that her former lover had died after overdosing on a new psychotropic drug. He then offered her place to stay with his wife and himself until her child was born, as he saw it a parent's duty to make amends for the failings of their children. With little money and fewer options, Elisabeth accepted the offer and made her way to New York. Two months later Leonid Reiniger, officially adopted into the family by Leopold, was born.

Young Leonid was born with a mild physical deformity, one foot turned inward and devoid of toes, attributed to his parent's excessive drug use by the doctors involved in his birth. Doctors were able to repair the mislaid ankle, however the malformed tendons of the joint were beyond the powers of current medical science to address. As a result, the boy would have difficulty walking and running without assistance for the rest of his foreseeable life. Aside from this impediment he lived a fairly normal and happy life with his mother and grandparents.

Due to his physical handicap Leonid never developed much of an interest in sports or other such activities, instead finding more cerebral pursuits both more practical and enjoyable. Of particular interest to the growing boy were games that allowed a combination of strategy and human interaction, such as chess, checkers, and to a lesser extent poker. He found any challenge in which his own wits and an ability to read the intentions or strategies of his opponent more meaningful than anything else, including school to his mother's chagrin. Not to say he was a poor student, more that he didn't seem to be living up to his full potential.

Nevertheless, he managed to progress through his years at school relatively free of trouble, beyond the sort any rather shy adolescent boy with a handicap had to face. When faced with the momentous decision of what to do in regards to further education he chose to pursue a major in a subject that had fascinated him for many years, influenced both by his infirmity and the lessons he had learned playing his favorite games, psychology.

Leonid took to this course like fish to water. He became enamored, some would say obsessed even, with the study of the mind, so much so that he declared a double major into medicine with a focus on neurology to better understand the impact the physical container for the mind had upon it. It was during this period that he first began to feel the itching influence of Inspiration driving him to learn more, to seek out deeper understanding, to push his own mental limits beyond the scope of human limitations. He began to take a particular interest in the theories of Jung, particularly his assertion of the existence of a collective unconscious connecting all of humanity through a shared group of mental archetypes.

As his credits accumulated, gaining a masters degree in both fields along the way, and came ever closer to finishing what schooling a university environment could offer him Leonid felt that he was growing ever closer to a precipice of sorts, an understanding that would change in some fundamental way he viewed the world. In equal parts afraid and excited he plunged onward, writing dual doctoral thesis on what he considered the intrinsically linked nature of brain function and mental processing, a sort of ordered chaos connecting all minds, regardless of differences in composure or apparent functionality.

He likely would have catalyzed as a Genius during the hectic madness of preparing to defend his thesis, if not for the news of his mother's imminent death to a particularly malignant form of cancer. Given an extension on his thesis-defense by the university Leonid hurried to his mother's side, fully intending to be with her in her final days. He was completely unprepared for her state, wasted away to a shadow of the vibrant and caring woman he remembered from his childhood, lapsed into a melancholy bitterness on her deathbed, haunted by her memories of his father and the relationship with him Leonid was denied by her choice to leave him. He couldn't bear to see her wracked by guilt for what she hadn't done and endeavored to ease her mind, using everything he'd learned of the mind to try and give her peace in her final hours.

He failed. With bitter tears in her eyes, Elisabeth Hollander passed away. This came as a major shock to Leonid, throwing in his face all that he believed he understood of the mind, forcing him to accept a cruel truth about humanity. Despite the connection he felt all humans shared with each other, no amount of understanding or counseling could help those who refused to help themselves. With this new understanding in his mind, Leonid returned to his university, and though grieving managed to defend both of his thesis. He now felt a burning desire to aid as many people as possible to overcome their mental traumas and complications, to make amends as it were for his failure to assuage his mother's issues on her deathbed.

To this end, he acquired the proper licenses to practice as a therapist, taking on a job at a mental hospital dedicated to the care of particularly damaged souls. Some cases proved fruitful, more often tragic, as time and again he watched his patients refuse to be helped even unto madness and in some cases death. As his spirit began to break under the continual failures, he came into contact with a patient thought by many of his peers to be unreachable. Indeed, at first Leonid was inclined to agree with them, as the patient seemed completely unable to communicate rationally, babbling in what seemed like a foreign language. Still he persisted, returning day after day to try and break through the barrier of language between them.

He achieved his goal in a way he did not expect to, one day as he sat with his mind wandering toward his own discarded theories as he listened to the apparent madman ramble. "Why can't we communicate? Are we not both human, with the same connection to the greater whole? Is there no way to make myself understood? Does he not wish to be understood, to be helped? How can I help those who refuse to help themselves?" As his mind drifted his eyes locked with those of the man across from him, for the first time he saw a glimmer of something more than madness behind them. He saw a connection. And for the first time, he understood the man as he spoke. "You have to make them help themselves." And with this, Leonid felt the wall within himself crumble and with a smile on his face let the Mania wash over him.

(Work In Progress)

Sheet:Leonid Reiniger