Frederic Wertham
| Fredric Wertham | |
|---|---|
Fredric Wertham reads EC Comics' Shock Illustrated in 1955
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| Born |
March 20, 1895 Munich, German Empire |
| Died |
November 18, 1981 (aged 86) Kempton, Pennsylvania |
| Education | University of Würzburg (M.D., 1921) |
| Occupation | Psychiatry |
| Spouse(s) | Florence Hesketh (1902–1987) |
Fredric Wertham (/ˈwɜːrθəm/; March 20, 1895 – November 18, 1981) was a German-educated American psychiatrist and crusading author who protested the purportedly harmful effects of violent imagery in mass media and comic books on the development of children. His best-known book was Seduction of the Innocent (1954), which suggested that comic books were dangerous to children. Wertham's criticisms of comic books helped spark a U.S. Congressional inquiry into the comic book industry and the creation of the Comics Code. He called television "a school for violence", and said "If I should meet an unruly youngster in a dark alley, I prefer it to be one who has not seen Bonnie and Clyde."
Wertham was born on March 20, 1895 in Munich, under the name Friedrich Ignatz Wertheimer. He did not change his name legally to Fredric Wertham until 1927. He studied at King's College London, at the Universities of Munich and Erlangen, and graduated with an M.D. degree from the University of Würzburg in 1921. He was very much influenced by Dr. Emil Kraepelin, 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, who influenced him in his choice of psychiatry as his specialty.
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