What a sorry mess. But he has only himself to blame.
YdF
That is the first thing a defense lawyer would reach for:
To try to find the way to blame the victim.
I'll have more to say about that later.
For now:
I think you are breaking down the case very well for us.
Thank you.
But you're doing it from the rational point of view.
And things like this just don't happen to completely
rational people.
---
Presumably you admire, or have admired, LC's art.
Presumably you can appreciate that it took an extraordinarily
sensitive individual (,perhaps with concomitant neurosis,)
to have created it.
And yet you fault him, and don't see the contradiction in it,
for his not being the Uncle Scrooge McDuck, with nothing
better to do than make, guard, and count his money!
But these things are incompatible.
Perhaps you do handle your own finances exceedingly well.
(Because often pointing out other people's faults is felt to be
the more socially acceptable way of draw attention to our
own too little recognized virtues than is directly boasting
about them.)
And, after all, artistic creativity,
and financial cupidity, ARE inversely proportional.
(wouldn't you admit?)
Power of attorney? Majority ownership? What was the man thinking?
Well, he wasn't thinking with the coiffured head.
However how can you fault him (--LC!--)
for not being a hard boiled cynic about women?
I mean, how can YOU???
There certainly are lines in LC that appear to be crass or even misogynist.
And, just as you found "it hard to believe Leonard didn't know what
his finances were," so too there are people who find it hard
to believe that Leonard isn't just a cold-hearted gigolo.
But any psychoanalyst who can't see through that
- who doesn't know the difference between the defense mechanisms
of a true bleary eyed idealistic romantic that never could
"grow-up" in the real world (- however furious that makes you at him)
on the one hand, and the affects of a brain-stunted sociopath on the other
- had better turn over his couch, and get a job as an expert
tv commentator psychologist instead.
I find it hard to believe Leonard didn't know what his finances were.
This is a man who keeps meticulous records about his life.
All those legendary boxes and boxes of minutia detailing his every thought.
I remember the scene in the Mt. Baldy video where he is packing his suitcase.
(You can tell a lot about a person by the way they pack their suitcase.
That's the first thing I make my patients do. Very revealing.)
He was packing the case very, very carefully.
The man is obsessed with detail. And with keeping things orderly.
You don't pack a suitcase like that and then get careless with your life savings.
That is a very interesting point.
(And thank you for all them, by the way. )
However, you could have given it a little more thought.
As a psychoanalyst, you shouldn't see any inconsistency
between neatness-fetish, and financial indifference.
They are after all both simply alternate neurotic responses
to early toilet training. (Neatness gets mother's approval.
Sloppiness gets mother's attention.)
--------
But my most important point is this:
As a Jew you should be particularly sensitive to LC's
subconscious guilt for being a Cohen of the tribe of Levi.
It's what's behind all of his self-destructive behavior.
It is the meaning of his vegetarinanism, for example.
(Read Leviticus.)
And it's why he lost his money.
--
He himself always lived a Spartan life.
And so it should come as no surprise
that his subconscious would use chance
- that is to say, G-d's will
- via exposure to pilfering
- as an effective way to bypass his rational consciousness
- in order to make - in effect - out of the offerings
and wealth given him by the people -
an heave offering unto the lord
For the Levites are to have no other inheritance than that.
Numbers --- Chapter 18
20
And the LORD spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance
in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them: I
am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of
Israel.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21
And, behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth
in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they
serve, even the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22
Neither must the children of Israel henceforth come nigh the
tabernacle of the congregation, lest they bear sin, and die.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23
But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the
congregation, and they shall bear their iniquity: it shall be
a statute for ever throughout your generations, that among the
children of Israel they have no inheritance.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24
But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer as
an heave offering unto the LORD, I have given to the Levites
to inherit: therefore I have said unto them, Among the
children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26
Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take
of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you
from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up an
heave offering of it for the LORD, even a tenth part of the
tithe.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27
And this your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you, as
though it were the corn of the threshingfloor, and as the
fulness of the winepress.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28
Thus ye also shall offer an heave offering unto the LORD of
all your tithes, which ye receive of the children of Israel;
and ye shall give thereof the LORD's heave offering to Aaron
the priest.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
29
Out of all your gifts ye shall offer every heave offering of
the LORD, of all the best thereof, even the hallowed part
thereof out of it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
30
Therefore thou shalt say unto them, When ye have heaved the
best thereof from it, then it shall be counted unto the
Levites as the increase of the threshingfloor, and as the
increase of the winepress.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
31
And ye shall eat it in every place, ye and your households:
for it is your reward for your service in the tabernacle of
the congregation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
32
And ye shall bear no sin by reason of it, when ye have heaved
from it the best of it: neither shall ye pollute the holy
things of the children of Israel, lest ye die.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
~greg
Buddhism, buddhism, buddhism... A monk is a monk, Christian or buddhist or whatever. 
Ha! Tchoco, dear Tchoco! That about sums it up, I'd say. I mean, I too, will watch with interest, I hope the sun shines down on Leonard, but, this is earth. Not so perfect. 