The Alienist (1994) is a crime novel by American writer, Caleb Carr (1955-2024).

The narrator is a New York Times journalist, John Moore, who teams up with Laszlo Kreizler, a famous alienist or psychiatrist, to solve the murder of a 13-year-old boy. The year is 1896.

Dr Kreizler specialises in child and criminal psychology. He runs the Kreizler Institute, an approved school for abandoned and “wayward” New York children he founded in 1885. Although famous & admired by many, he is also ostracized by his peers who mock his emphasis on ‘context’ or on understanding the reasons, often rooted in childhood, why criminals behave as they do.

Featured in the story is 12-year-old Stevie Taggert. Stevie has had a difficult past, leaving his opium addicted mother at the age of 8 to live on the streets. He was taken in by Dr Kreizler at age 10. Kreizler homeschools the boy and Stevie helps by driving Kreizler in his calash, a horse drawn carriage.