Dr. Julius Hoffman

*"No, Ty... Having sociopathic thoughts doesn't make you a sociopath. Doing sociopathic things makes you a sociopath!" - Dr. Julius Hoffman*

**Dr. Julius Hoffman** is a prominent New York doctor, psychologist and mental therapist based at Ardmore Sanitarium in Winchester, New York. An afficianado of high living, he is a highly charismatic and intellectual person with a reputation with dating young women.

Born in or around 1920 on a farm near Vienna, Austria, he was raised in the small town of Rathenau, Germany near the town of Bremen. One of seven children, his family with his uncles, aunts and cousins emigrated to the United States in 1927, ending up in the small Germantown community near Waukesha, Wisconsin. Although raised on a dairy farm, he felt he was meant for much more and attended the Point Place Community College, studying medicine, surgery and biology, before transferring his major to psychiatry at Southeastern Wisconsin University.

Finishing his medical internship at the Morrow Medical Hospital in Green Bay, he tried opening a private practice in New York City, losing his entire fortune to a scam artist running an illegal clinic on Staten Island. Moving from hospital to hospital afterward, he was working at the Ardmore Sanitarium in Winchester where the attending physician, Dr. Fletcher Condon, named him to be his replacement due to his life experience. One of the other therapists in the hospital, Dr. Felix Osmond, contested his advancement due to having been at Ardmore much longer, but Condon turned him down because of unethical and unprofessional activities.

Due to tis position, Hoffman was often called upon as an advisor to the Duffy Medical Center in Albany, New York. His patients at Ardmore included Fred Johnson, a manic depressive with violent tendencies, Daphne Banner, a confused mother who had accidentally scalded her baby to death, Roger Norville, who had been picked up after running naked on Haverstraw Road and screaming about the end of the world, and Velma Denton, a woman who had stopped talking after the death of her abusive father. His most prominent patient was Ty Hedison, the step-son of Carter Hedison, who had advanced identity crisis issues exacerbated by psychological abuse from Carter as well as social conflicts caused by his attraction to his half-sister, Rachel Hedison. Hoffman considered Ty his prime patient and became a much needed pseudo-father figure to the confused Ty. To help him, he learned about George Albert, a restaurant owner in Philadelphia who had befriended Ty, and Ty's cousin, Bradley Larabee, who helped remind Ty of happy childhood memories. Bradley's mother and Ty's aunt, Naomi Hedison, was also briefly admitted to Ardmore for false claims of having delusions against Carter, but after meeting her and becoming enchanted by her, he released her. Naomi was also interested in Ty's case and wanted to help him, offering Dr. Hoffman any financing he needed to help Ty.

Unfortunately, it soon became obvious that Carter Hedison was interested in keeping Ty away from the inheritance left to him by his mother as well as preventing him from delving too deeply into the strange circumstances of her death. He tried paying Dr. Hoffman into keeping Ty institutionalized, but Hoffman was only interested in helping Ty and resisted. Through Dash Andrews, Carter then started paying another resident, Dr. Felix Osmond, into sabotaging Hoffman's progress with Ty, such as sending fake love letters from Rachel and false messages from his dead mother.

Eventually, Ty was attacked and beaten up by Fred and Alex Simmons, another mental patient, possibly left unlocked by Osmond, and he was left an amnesiac. Dr. Hoffman and the staff recommended that Ty be returned home under guidance to regain his idenity. Without Osmond, Ty soon regained much of his memories but without the emotional ties to them. Dr. Hoffman stayed by as his support and gradually learned the harmful mental atmosphere Ty had lived with from Edward Ashworth, the family retainer, who had had since taken a shine to him. Unfortunately, Hoffman had to soon return to Ardmore and chose to leave Ty in his home in Ashford Falls.

Without Ty, Dr. Hoffman started seeing a female patient named Patience Worth from nearby Peytonville. The daughter of an arsonist who had abused her, Patience had murdered her father by setting him on fire, but a few years later, Ty was forcibly re-institutionalized at Ardmore after falling for Janet DuBois, a local girl who might have been his real sister as he learned he might not be related to Rachel after all. Driven emotionally distant, Ty soon fell in love with Patience from afar, and Dr. Hoffman gradually brought them together. He soon found that both Ty and Patience were good for each other, and after Ty said he wanted to marry Patience, Dr. Hoffman helped them find a home near an assisted living facility in Lake George.

Remaining Ty and Patience's therapist for several more years, Dr. Hoffman casually visited them several times to complete their therapy. In 1995, he was called upon as a mental consultant to testify on Carter's psychological abuse on Ty during Carter's murder trial.

Sadly, Dr. Hoffman passed away in 2000; his position on the hospital board taken by resident, Dr. Wendy Radcliffe, once again passing over Dr. Osmond. His research, possessions and journals were claimed by unidentified parties that have since not been revealed.