Fredric Wertham (; born Friedrich Ignatz Wertheimer, March 20, 1895 – November 18, 1981) was a German–American

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

and author. Wertham had an early reputation as a progressive psychiatrist who treated poor black patients at his

Lafargue Clinic The Lafargue Mental Health Clinic, more commonly known as the Lafargue Clinic, was a mental health clinic that operated in Harlem, Manhattan, New York, from 1946 until 1958. The clinic was named for French Marxist physician Paul Lafargue and co ...

at a time of heightened discrimination in urban mental health practice. Wertham also authored a definitive textbook on the brain, and his institutional stressor findings were cited when courts overturned multiple segregation statutes, most notably in ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the ...

.'' Despite this, Wertham remains best known for his concerns about the effects of violent imagery in mass media and the effects of comic books on the development of children. His best-known book is ''

Seduction of the Innocent ''Seduction of the Innocent'' is a book by German-born American psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, published in 1954, that warned that comic books were a harmful form of popular literature and a serious cause of juvenile delinquency. The book was tak ...

'' (1954), which asserted that comic books caused youth to become delinquents. Besides ''Seduction of the Innocent'', Wertham also wrote articles and testified before government inquiries into comic books, most notably as part of a U.S. Congressional inquiry into the comic book industry. Wertham's work, in addition to the 1954 comic book hearings, led to the creation of the

Comics Code Authority The Comics Code Authority (CCA) was formed in 1954 by the Comics Magazine Association of America as an alternative to government regulation. The CCA enabled comic publishers to self-regulate the content of American comic book, comic books in the ...

, although later scholars cast doubt on his observations.

Early life

Wertham was born Friedrich Ignatz

Wertheimer Wertheimer is an Ashkenazi Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Akiba Israel Wertheimer (1778–1835), first Chief Rabbi of Altona and Schleswig-Holstein * Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, French Jewish billionaire owners of Ch ...

on March 20, 1895, in

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

to the middle-class

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family of Sigmund and Mathilde Wertheimer.

Ella Winter Ella Winter Stewart (17 March 1898 – 5 August 1980) was an Australian-British journalist and activist, and champion of migrant farm workers. She was married to Hollywood screenwriter Donald Ogden Stewart. Early life Ella was born Eleanora S ...

(originally Wertheimer) was a relative. He did not change his name legally to Fredric Wertham until 1927. He studied at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

, at the Universities of

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and

Erlangen Erlangen (; , ) is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative district Erlangen), and with 119,810 inhabitants (as of 30 September 2024), it is the smalle ...

, and graduated with an M.D. degree from the

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. Founded in 1402, it is one of the ol ...

in 1921. He was very much influenced by Dr.

Emil Kraepelin Emil Wilhelm Georg Magnus Kraepelin (; ; 15 February 1856 – 7 October 1926) was a German psychiatrist. H. J. Eysenck's Encyclopedia of Psychology identifies him as the founder of modern scientific psychiatry, psychopharmacology and psychiatric ...

, a professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of Munich, and worked briefly at the Kraepelin Clinic in Munich in 1922. Kraepelin emphasized the effects of environment and social background on psychological development. Around this time Wertham corresponded and visited with

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...

, who influenced him in his choice of

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior. ...

as his specialty.

Career

In 1922, he accepted an invitation to come to the United States and work under Adolf Meyer at the

Phipps Psychiatric Clinic The Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic is a psychiatric school and clinic in Baltimore, Maryland. Proposed in 1908 as the first of its kind in the United States, the clinic opened on April 16, 1913 as a new section of Johns Hopkins Hospital. After ...

Johns Hopkins Hospital Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1889, Johns Hopkins Hospital and its school of medicine are considered to be the foundin ...

in Baltimore, Maryland. He became a United States citizen and married the sculptor Florence Hesketh in 1927. He moved to New York City in 1932 to accept a senior staff position at the Bellevue Mental Hygiene Clinic, the psychiatric clinic connected with the New York Court of General Sessions in which all convicted felons received a psychiatric examination that was used in court. In 1935 he testified for the defense in the trial of

cannibalistic Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is also well documente ...

child rapist and

serial killer A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...

Albert Fish Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish (May 19, 1870 – January 16, 1936) was an American serial killer, rapist, child molester and cannibal who committed at least three child murders between July 1924 and June 1928. He was also known as the Gra ...

, declaring him insane. In 1946, Wertham opened the

in the basement of St. Philip's Church in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

, a low-cost psychiatric clinic specializing in the treatment of Black teenagers. The clinic was financed by voluntary contributions.Springhall, John. Youth, Popular Culture and Moral Panics: Penny Gaffs to Gangsta-Rap, 1830–1996. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.

''Seduction of the Innocent'' and Senate hearings

''Seduction of the Innocent'' described overt or covert depictions of violence, sex, drug use, and other adult fare within "crime comics"—a term Wertham used to describe not only the popular gangster/murder-oriented titles of the time but also

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a fictional character who typically possesses ''superpowers'' or abilities beyond those of ordinary people, is frequently costumed concealing their identity, and fits the role of the hero, typically using their ...

and horror comics as well—and asserted, based largely on undocumented anecdotes, that reading this material encouraged similar behavior in children. Comics, especially the crime/horror titles pioneered by

EC Comics E.C. Publications, Inc., (doing business as EC Comics) is an American comic book publisher. It specialized in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction, dark fantasy, and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950s, nota ...

, were not lacking in gruesome images; Wertham reproduced these extensively, pointing out what he saw as recurring morbid themes such as "injury to the eye" (as depicted in ''

Plastic Man Plastic Man (Patrick "Eel" O'Brian) is a superhero featured in American comic books first appearing in ''Police Comics'' #1, originally published by Quality Comics and later acquired by DC Comics. Created by cartoonist Jack Cole (artist), Jack Co ...

'' creator Jack Cole's "Murder, Morphine and Me", which he illustrated and probably wrote for publisher Magazine Village's ''True Crime Comics'' No. 2 (May 1947); it involved drug dealing protagonist Mary Kennedy nearly getting stabbed in the eye "by a junkie with a hypodermic needle" in her dream sequence). Many of his other conjectures, particularly about hidden sexual themes (e.g. images of female nudity concealed in drawings of muscles and tree bark, or

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

and

Robin Robin most commonly refers to several species of passerine birds. Robin may also refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), inclu ...

as gay lovers), were met with skepticism from his fellow mental health professionals, but found an audience in those concerned with "public morals", such as Senator

Estes Kefauver Carey Estes Kefauver ( ; July 26, 1903 – August 10, 1963) was an American politician from Tennessee. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1939 to 1949 and in the U.S. Senate from 1949 until h ...

, who had Wertham testify before the

Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency The United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency was established by the United States Senate in 1953 to investigate the problem of juvenile delinquency. Background The subcommittee was a unit of the United States Senate Judiciary Co ...

, which he led. In extensive testimony before the committee, Wertham restated arguments from his book and pointed to comics as a major cause of juvenile crime. Beaty notes "Wertham repeated his call ... ornational legislation based on the public health ideal that would prohibit the circulation and display of comic books to children under the age of fifteen." The committee's questioning of their next witness, EC publisher

William Gaines William Maxwell "Bill" Gaines (; March 1, 1922 – June 3, 1992) was an American publisher and co-editor of EC Comics. Following a shift in EC's direction in 1950, Gaines presided over what became an artistically influential and historically i ...

, focused on violent scenes of the type Wertham had decried. Though the committee's final report did not blame comics for crime, it recommended that the comics industry tone down its content voluntarily; possibly taking this as a veiled threat of potential censorship, publishers developed the

to censor their own content. The Code banned not only violent images but also entire words and concepts (e.g. "terror" and "

zombie A zombie (Haitian French: ; ; Kikongo: ''zumbi'') is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. In modern popular culture, zombies appear in horror genre works. The term comes from Haitian folkl ...

s") and dictated that criminals must always be punished—thus destroying most EC-style titles, and leaving a sanitized subset of

comics as the chief remaining genre. Citing one of Wertham's arguments, that 95% of children in reform school read comics proves that comics cause juvenile delinquency (an example of the well-known

logical fallacy In logic and philosophy, a formal fallacy is a pattern of reasoning rendered invalid by a flaw in its logical structure. Propositional logic, for example, is concerned with the meanings of sentences and the relationships between them. It focuses ...

correlation implies causation),

Stan Lee Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book author, writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Comics which later bec ...

recounted that Wertham "said things that impressed the public, and it was like shouting fire in a theater, but there was little scientific validity to it. And yet because he had the name doctor people took what he said seriously, and it started a whole crusade against comics." ''Seduction of the Innocent'' also analyzed the advertisements that appeared in 1950s comic books and the commercial context in which these publications existed. Wertham objected to not only the violence in the stories but also the fact that air rifles and knives were advertised alongside them. Wertham claimed that retailers who did not want to sell material with which they were uncomfortable, such as

horror comics Horror comics are comic books, graphic novels, black-and-white comics magazines, and manga focusing on horror fiction. In the US market, horror comic books reached a peak in the late 1940s through the mid-1950s, when concern over content and the ...

, were essentially held to ransom by the distributors. According to Wertham, news vendors were told by the distributors that if they did not sell the objectionable comic books, they would not be allowed to sell any of the other publications being distributed. Also in 1954, Wertham was the Court's appointed psychiatric expert in the trial of the Brooklyn Thrill Killers. When the gang's 18-year-old leader admitted that he had read simply comic books, Wertham concluded that the books were to blame for his crimes.The Incredible True Story of Joe Shuster's NIGHTS OF HORROR
''Comic book legal defense'', October 3, 2012

Later career

Wertham's views on mass media have largely overshadowed his broader concerns with violence and with overprotecting children from psychological harm. His writings about the effects of

racial segregation Racial segregation is the separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Segregation can involve the spatial separation of the races, and mandatory use of different institutions, ...

were used as evidence in the landmark Supreme Court case ''

'', and part of his 1966 book ''A Sign for Cain'' dealt with the involvement of medical professionals in

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. To promote this book, Wertham made two memorable appearances on the ''

Mike Douglas Show ''The Mike Douglas Show'' is an American daytime television talk show that was hosted by Mike Douglas. It began as a local program in Cleveland in 1961 before being carried on other stations owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting. The show went in ...

'' where he ended up debating his theories with the co-hosts,

Barbara Feldon Barbara Feldon (born Barbara Anne Hall; March 12, 1933) is an American actress primarily known for her roles on television. Her most prominent role was that of Agent 99 in the 1965–1970 sitcom ''Get Smart''. Early life Feldon was born Barbar ...

(April 10, 1967) and

Vincent Price Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor. He was known for his work in the horror film genre, mostly portraying villains. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price ...

(June 19, 1967). Excerpts were shown at the 2003

San Diego Comic-Con San Diego Comic-Con is a comic book convention and multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California, at the San Diego Convention Center. Founded in 1970, originally showcasing primarily comic books and science fiction/fant ...

University of Calgary {{Infobox university , name = University of Calgary , image = University of Calgary coat of arms without motto scroll.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , former ...

professor Bart Beaty, the only person allowed access to Wertham's personal papers before they were unsealed in 2010, reveals that Wertham tried in 1959 to sell a follow-up to ''Seduction of the Innocent'' concerning the effects of television on children, to be titled ''The War on Children''. Much to Wertham's frustration, no publishers were interested in publishing it. Wertham always denied that he favored censorship or had anything against comic books in principle, and in the 1970s he focused his interest on the benign aspects of the comic fandom subculture; in his last book, ''The World of Fanzines'' (1974), he concluded that

fanzine A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleas ...

s were "a constructive and healthy exercise of creative drives". This led to an invitation for Wertham to address the New York Comic Art Convention. Still infamous to most comics fans of the time, Wertham encountered suspicion and heckling at the convention, and stopped writing about comics thereafter. Before retirement he became a professor of psychiatry at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, a senior psychiatrist in the New York City Department of Hospitals, and a psychiatrist and the director of the Mental Hygiene Clinic at the

Bellevue Hospital Center Bellevue Hospital (officially NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and formerly known as Bellevue Hospital Center) is a hospital in New York City and the oldest public hospital in the United States. One of the largest hospitals in the United States ...

Death

Wertham died on November 18, 1981, at his

retirement home A retirement home – sometimes called an old people's home, old folks' home, or old age home, although ''old people's home'' can also refer to a nursing home – or rest home, is a multi-residence housing facility intended for the elderly. Ty ...

Kempton, Pennsylvania Kempton is a census-designated place in Albany Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, Albany Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, Berks County, Pennsylvania. Demographics Description Kempton is located at 40.625°N, 75.853°W at the junction o ...

, at age 86.

Accusations of falsified data

After Wertham's manuscript collection at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

was unsealed in 2010, Carol Tilley, a

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

librarian and information science professor, investigated his research and found his conclusions to be largely baseless. In a 2012 study, Tilley wrote "Wertham manipulated, overstated, compromised, and fabricated evidence—especially that evidence he attributed to personal clinical research with young people—for rhetorical gain." Among the criticisms leveled at ''Seduction of the Innocent'' are that Wertham used a non-representative sample of young people who were already mentally troubled, that he misrepresented stories from colleagues as being his own, and that Wertham manipulated statements from adolescents by deliberately neglecting some passages while rephrasing others such that they better suited his thesis.

Legacy

Wertham's papers (including the manuscript to the unpublished ''The War on Children'') were donated to the

and are held by the Manuscript Division. They were made available for use by scholars for research on May 20, 2010. A register of the papers has been prepared that displays the eclectic reach of Wertham's interests. In 2014, documentary filmmaker Robert A. Emmons Jr. produced the documentary ''Diagram for Delinquents'', which details the complicated and controversial history of Fredric Wertham and comic books in the 1940s and 1950s. The film's goal was to create a more complex picture of Wertham than what had previously been depicted in comic book documentaries. His activism was cited in the 2011

US supreme court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

decision '' Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association''. Wertham was satirized as a Dr. Bertham who was kidnapped and turned into a monster by a mad scientist in Seaboard's ''

Brute Brute or The Brute may refer to: People * Brute, a pseudonym of English commercial artist Aidan Hughes (born 1956) * "Brute", nickname of US Marine Corps Lieutenant General Victor H. Krulak (1913–2008) * Brute Bernard, ring name of Canadia ...

'' No. 2 (April 1975). Issue No. 1 of Bongo Comics' ''

Radioactive Man Radioactive Man may refer to: *Radioactive Man (comics) Radioactive Man is the name of several Supervillain, supervillains appearing in American comic book, American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first incarnation of Radioactive Ma ...

'' shows comics from a young boy's collection that satirize Wertham's negative view of comic books. These include ''Crime Does Pay'' (violence and gore); ''Headlights'' (women with ludicrously pointed breasts); ''Stab'' (pathological fixation on eye injuries); and ''Tales of Revolting Filth'' (pretty much subsuming every other category). Wertham himself is also parodied in the issue. According to the supplementary material of the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

series ''Watchmen'', within that fictional universe Fredric Wertham created a system for cataloging the mental states of costumed adventurers. The character of Doctor Fredreich "Werthers" on the last season of the CW show '' Riverdale'' is based on Wertham. Wertham makes an appearance in the fifth book of

Dav Pilkey David Murray "Dav" Pilkey Jr. (; born March 4, 1966) is an American comic book writer of children's fiction. He is best known as the author and illustrator of the children's book series ''Captain Underpants'' and its spin-off children's graphic ...

's ''Cat Kid Comic Club'' series in the short comic book ''I Am Dr. Fredric Wertham'' written by the character Melvin.

Selected bibliography

* 1941: ''Dark Legend: A Study in Murder'', Duell, Sloan and Pearce. * 1948: "The Comics... Very Funny", ''Saturday Review of Literature'', May 29, 1948, p. 6. ::(condensed version in ''Reader's Digest'', August 1948, p. 15) * 1953: "What Parents Don't Know About Comic Books". ''Ladies' Home Journal'', Nov. 1953, p. 50. * 1954: ''Seduction of the Innocent''. Rinehart & Company ::(condensed version in ''Reader's Digest'', May, 1954, p. 24 titled "Comic Books-- Blueprints for Delinquency") * 1955: "It's Still Murder". ''Saturday Review of Literature'', April 9, 1955, p. 11. * 1956: ''The Circle of Guilt.'' Rinehart & Company. * 1968: ''A Sign for Cain: An Exploration of Human Violence''. Hale. * 1973: ''The World of Fanzines: A Special Form of Communication''. Southern Illinois University Press. * 1973: "Doctor Wertham Strikes Back!" ''

The Monster Times ''The Monster Times'' was a horror film fan magazine created in 1972. Published by The Monster Times Publishing Co., it was intended as a competitor to ''Famous Monsters of Filmland''. Although the main editorial focus of the magazine was horror m ...

'' no. 22, May 1973, p. 6.

References

External links

– on

Lambiek Galerie Lambiek is a Dutch comic book store and art gallery in Amsterdam, founded on November 8, 1968 by Kees Kousemaker (, – Bussum Bussum () is a commuter town and former municipality in the Gooi region in the south east of the prov ...

Comiclopedia
''Fredric Wertham – Anti-Comics Crusader Who Turned Advocate''
– condensed online version of Dwight Decker three-part series listed above
The End of Seduction
– lengthy history of Wertham and censorship of comics * Comics Reporter: "Let's You and Him Fight
Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5
– Bart Beaty and Craig Fischer discuss Beaty's "Fredric Wertham and the Critique of Mass Culture"
No Evil Shall Escape My Sight: Frederic Wertham and the Anti-Comics Crusade
– lecture by Dr. Chris Bishop, Australian National University, at The Library of Congress * Wertham Collection: Publications primarily related to psychology at th
Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress
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