Twistty1 is right ... (I am his father after all, although he would not want to admit it!) ... There is a much larger context to understanding Dr. Fredric Wertham's actions. One important point is that he was not a true Freudian like most of his psychiatric colleagues, but believed essentially in "childhood innocence" and this made him very concerned about the kinds of "influences" that children were exposed to as they were socialized. It also tended to isolate him from the mainstream psychiatric community. The other child psychiatrists who rose to prominence during this period, Bruno Bettelheim, Erik Erikson. Selma Fraiberg, Anna Freud, and Melanie Klein did not always agree how adults should react to childhood aggression and sexual behavior, but they all felt that such behavior should not be interpreted as being "unnatural". This lack of support from his colleagues frustrated and disappointed Wertham, and in November 1955, he wrote to Karl Menninger, a well-known psychiatrist and the co-founder of the Menninger Foundation in which he said: "It would be nice if you would write on the harm that violence in mass media can do; since so many psychiartists who do not believe that now would be instructed by you." Menninger politely declined the request.
There have been many good books on the "comics controversy" in recent years ... Three that I can recommend are:
http://www.amazon.com/Fredric-Wertham-Critique-Mass-Culture/dp/157806810X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226786434&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Ten-Cent-Plague-Comic-Book-Changed-America/dp/B00139XT6Y/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1226786434&sr=1-4
http://www.amazon.com/Seal-Approval-History-Studies-Popular/dp/087805975X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226786548&sr=1-1
This issue has to be understood within the larger context of what historians and social scientists call "The Cycle Of Outrage" that periodically grips countries ... in the 1950s it was the comic book industry's turn. In previous decades it had been the movies ... and to a lesser extent radio. For references see:
http://www.amazon.com/Film-Democratic-Art-Garth-Jowett/dp/0240517814/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226786730&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Children-Movies-Influence-Controversy-Communication/dp/0521041457/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226786730&sr=1-5
http://www.amazon.com/Responses-Innovation-Popular-Argument-Dissertations/dp/0405075332/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226786966&sr=1-2
Happy Reading ...
