Over the next four years, his mother was hospitalized on several occasions and underwent therapy related to a bad experience on
LSD that she had near the beginning of her marriage (in San Francisco), according to Schreiber's father.
[9] After Schreiber's father threatened to have Schreiber's mother admitted to a
mental institution,
Schreiber was kidnapped by his mother, eventually leading to his mother gaining full custody of him.
[15] They squatted on the Lower East Side in New York City.
[16]
Schreiber has described his mother as a "far-out
Socialist Labor Party hippie bohemian freak who hung out with
William Burroughs".
[9][17][18] She was "a highly cultured eccentric" who earned a living by splitting her time between driving a cab and creating
papier-mâché puppets." In 1983, his mother bought him a
motorcycle on his 16th birthday to "promote fearlessness."
[9] The critic
John Lahr wrote in a 1999
New Yorker profile that, "To a large extent, Schreiber's professional shape-shifting and his uncanny instinct for isolating the frightened, frail, goofy parts of his characters are a result of being forced to adapt to his mother's eccentricities. It's both his grief and his gift."
[9]
Her bohemian proclivities led to actions such as making Schreiber take the Hindu name Shiva Das, wear yoga shirts, consume a vegetarian diet, and briefly attend Satchidananda Ashram in Pomfret, Connecticut when he was 12.[19] Schreiber's mother also forbade her son from seeing color movies. As a result, his favorite actors were
Charlie Chaplin, Andrew Cartwright, and
Basil Rathbone. In retrospect, Schreiber said in a 2008 interview that he appreciates his mother's influences, saying: "Since I've had Sasha, I've completely identified with everything my mother went through raising me... and I think her choices were inspired."
[20]