WRITER

Fredric Wertham

1895 - 1981

Fredric Wertham

Fredric Wertham (; born Friedrich Ignatz Wertheimer, March 20, 1895 – November 18, 1981) was a German–American psychiatrist and author. Wertham had an early reputation as a progressive psychiatrist who treated poor black patients at his Lafargue Clinic 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. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Fredric Wertham has received more than 376,944 page views. His biography is available in 17 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 16 in 2019). Fredric Wertham is the 5,797th most popular writer (down from 4,345th in 2019), the 5,213th most popular biography from Germany (down from 3,966th in 2019) and the 345th most popular German Writer.

Memorability Metrics

380k
Page Views (PV)
44.92
Historical Popularity Index (HPI)
17
Languages Editions (L)
2.67
Effective Languages (L*)
3.09
Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

1949

The Circle of Guilt

In 1955 a New York City court sentenced Puerto Rican immigrant and teenage gang member Frank Santana to twenty-five years to life for second-degree murder. Fredric Wertham, one of the most influential authorities on child psychology in the twentieth century, was outraged and felt compelled to write *The Circle of Guilt*. He had conducted multiple interviews with Santana and created an extensive psychological profile on him. Wertham saw unsettling patterns in the ways in which the case was reported, investigated, and deliberated. Media portrayed the victim, a white teenager named Bill Blankenship, as a "model boy" and reported the killing as "unprovoked." In the furor surrounding the case, Santana was often called a "hoodlum." Wertham suspected otherwise. In *The Circle of Guilt*, the psychiatrist uncovers a paradigm of fear, racism, distrust, and prejudice. He argues that the press's presentation of the case reflected extreme cultural bigotry. Wertham also reveals Blankenship's activity within teen gangs and asserts that Santana's actions were shaped in part by his unmediated exposure to mass media.

1956

The Show of Violence

Psychiatry, Homicide, Murder

In our dreams and fantasies, we are all murderers, leveling whole cities with our unconscious hates and fears. Most of us are content merely to dream. But in some, their dreams lunge out into nightmarish reality: mothers kill their own children; shy, gentle boys become mass murderers; old men lash out in violence. What is it that pushes them beyond fantasies into brutal violence? What are the mental states which lead to murder? How does the mind of the murderer differ from that of a normal person? How does society contribute to murder? Can a murderer be completely sane? These are just a few of the urgent questions which Fredric Wertham, author of *Dark Legend*, discusses in *The Show of Violence*.

1949

Seduction of the Innocent

Adolescent psychiatry, Child psychiatry, Comic books and children

This is the most shocking book of recent years. And it should be the most influential. Seduction of the Innocent is the complete, detailed report of the findings of famed psychiatrist, Frederic Wertham, on the pernicious influence of comic books on the youth of today. No parent can afford to ignore it. You think your child is immune? Don't forget — 90,000,000 comic books are read each month. On the basis of wide experience and many years' research, Dr. Wertham flatly states that comic books: - Are an invitation to illiteracy - Create an atmosphere of cruelty and deceit - Stimulate unwholesome fantasies - Suggest criminal or sexually abnormal ideas - Create a readiness for temptation - Suggest forms a delinquent impulse may take and supply details of technique

1954

A sign for Cain

Social conditions, Violence

In his first complete study of human violence, Dr. Wertham writes: "From my psychiatric and sociological studies I have arrived at a double thesis. On the one hand, violence is becoming much more entrenched in our social life than people are willing to believe. On the other hand, it is in our power eventually to conquer and abolish it." His book is a shocking, unsparing analysis of violence in all its aspects, which poses "the great question before mankind: Can we abolish violence without violence?" For concrete facts about the climate of violence, this distinguished psychiatrist and social critic draws on sociology, criminology, history, art and literature, current events, and his own case files. His style is felicitous, pithy, and clear, free of jargon, and informed with human understanding.

1966

A sign for Cain

Social conditions, Violence, Criminology

1966

The Circle of Guilt

Santana, frank, 1937-, Murderers, Puerto ricans, united states

1956

Dark Legend

Criminal psychology, Murder

1947

The Show of Violence

Psychiatry, Homicide, Murder