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In Memory of Dr. Wertham - SOTI Images to Corrupt Our Youth

Started by esquirecomics,

118 posts in this topic

buttock

buttock

Posted
Posted
Wertham suffered from what many others do - the inability to separate correlation from causation.

 

He focused on sick children, many of whom read comic books. To him, that meant the comic books caused mental illness. However, had he looked at the overwhelmingly more well children, he would have found that many of them read comic books as well.

 

Certainly, there is more to his motive than this, but it's a point that bears emphasizing whenever possible.

 

 

On another note, I have a book from the 1980s called "Seduction of the Innocent Revisited" that was another weaker attempt to make this argument. However, this was from a religious bent (may have even been published by a Catholic pub, I'd have to check) and didn't bother to try and make a correlation between the input (rotten comics) and the output (rotten kids). This was more an attack on moral grounds. Unfortunately, due to a bunch of stuff that was out there in the 80s, they had plenty to pick from!

 

My local toy store used to have pamphlets about the dangers of D&D during the 80s. These were also religeous in nature and listed things like kids committing suicide after their characters were killed. One pamphlet actually suggested that kids had been possessed by devils during D&D games.

 

Here is a passage from Wikipedia:

 

At various times in its history, Dungeons & Dragons has received negative publicity, in particular from some Christian groups, for alleged promotion of such practices as devil worship, witchcraft, suicide, and murder, and for naked breasts in drawings of female humanoids in the original AD&D manuals (mainly monsters such as Harpies, Succubi, etc.).[11][113] These controversies led TSR to remove many potentially controversial references and artwork when releasing the 2nd Edition of AD&D.[75] Many of these references, including the use of the names "devils" and "demons", were reintroduced in the 3rd edition.[114] The moral panic over the game also led to problems for fans of D&D who faced social ostracism, unfair treatment, and false association with the occult and Satanism, regardless of an individual fan's actual religious affiliation and beliefs.[115]

 

Dungeons & Dragons has also been the subject of rumors regarding players having difficulty separating fantasy and reality, even leading to psychotic episodes.[116] The most notable of these was the saga of James Dallas Egbert III,[117] which was fictionalized in the novel Mazes and Monsters and later made into a TV movie.[113][118] The game was also blamed for some of the actions of Chris Pritchard, who was convicted in 1990 of murdering his stepfather. Research by various psychologists,[119] the first being that of Armando Simon, have concluded that no harmful effects are related to the playing of D&D.[120]

 

Mike

 

Gotta watch out for Harpies - those never go away! :sick:

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BB-Gun

BB-Gun

Posted
Posted

3701873920_4844b01162_b.jpg

 

I never got that reference from Jungle 98. I guess I can't see what others see. But with a little Photoshop, we could see what the artist hoped would happen to Wertham.

3701972740_118dbdf9b2_b.jpg

 

 

Tougher fate than this Crime comic cover.

2540183044_d8c1c065ae_b.jpg

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Twistty1

Twistty1

Posted
Posted
3701873920_4844b01162_b.jpg

 

I never got that reference from Jungle 98. I guess I can't see what others see.

 

I can see the likeness but I still think it's just a ridiculous stretch of the imagination... I'm sure Freud would have something to say about Wertham's way of thinking.

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AtlasFan

AtlasFan

Posted
Posted
Wertham suffered from what many others do - the inability to separate correlation from causation.

 

He focused on sick children, many of whom read comic books. To him, that meant the comic books caused mental illness. However, had he looked at the overwhelmingly more well children, he would have found that many of them read comic books as well.

 

Certainly, there is more to his motive than this, but it's a point that bears emphasizing whenever possible.

 

 

On another note, I have a book from the 1980s called "Seduction of the Innocent Revisited" that was another weaker attempt to make this argument. However, this was from a religious bent (may have even been published by a Catholic pub, I'd have to check) and didn't bother to try and make a correlation between the input (rotten comics) and the output (rotten kids). This was more an attack on moral grounds. Unfortunately, due to a bunch of stuff that was out there in the 80s, they had plenty to pick from!

 

My local toy store used to have pamphlets about the dangers of D&D during the 80s. These were also religeous in nature and listed things like kids committing suicide after their characters were killed. One pamphlet actually suggested that kids had been possessed by devils during D&D games.

 

Here is a passage from Wikipedia:

 

At various times in its history, Dungeons & Dragons has received negative publicity, in particular from some Christian groups, for alleged promotion of such practices as devil worship, witchcraft, suicide, and murder, and for naked breasts in drawings of female humanoids in the original AD&D manuals (mainly monsters such as Harpies, Succubi, etc.).[11][113] These controversies led TSR to remove many potentially controversial references and artwork when releasing the 2nd Edition of AD&D.[75] Many of these references, including the use of the names "devils" and "demons", were reintroduced in the 3rd edition.[114] The moral panic over the game also led to problems for fans of D&D who faced social ostracism, unfair treatment, and false association with the occult and Satanism, regardless of an individual fan's actual religious affiliation and beliefs.[115]

 

Dungeons & Dragons has also been the subject of rumors regarding players having difficulty separating fantasy and reality, even leading to psychotic episodes.[116] The most notable of these was the saga of James Dallas Egbert III,[117] which was fictionalized in the novel Mazes and Monsters and later made into a TV movie.[113][118] The game was also blamed for some of the actions of Chris Pritchard, who was convicted in 1990 of murdering his stepfather. Research by various psychologists,[119] the first being that of Armando Simon, have concluded that no harmful effects are related to the playing of D&D.[120]

 

Mike

 

I went to a Catholic high school in the 80s and we had an AD&D club. I remember the stories about demonism and sucide being associated with the game. When that TV Movie was broadcast, there was a minor uproar from the PTA to have our club banned and all its members sent for intense psycho-therapy (maybe that part wasent such a bad idea, in retrospect!).

 

To make a long story short, it was agreed upon that one of the teachers, who happened to be an Irish Christian brother, would sit in on our weekly meetings.

 

Well, after about 2 weeks, we talked Brother John into joining the game and he became a member of our cult! He deemed it all harmless fun and a booster for creativity. We also tuned him on to the works of Tolkien, which has very strong Catholic themes.

Bill

 

Happy ending!

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BB-Gun

BB-Gun

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Posted

 

I never got that reference from Jungle 98. I guess I can't see what others see.

 

 

Maybe this will help. It's not the backside, it's the front.

 

jungle09802.jpg

 

I don't need circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back to explain this one. By Cole I think.

I often wonder if I have seen all of the weird stuff by Cole and then I see another new one.

Well...new to me.

4272565133_1f262ddce6_b.jpg

scan from ga.uk

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Doctor Svord

Doctor Svord

Posted
Posted

 

I don't need circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back to explain this one. By Cole I think.

I often wonder if I have seen all of the weird stuff by Cole and then I see another new one.

Well...new to me.

 

 

Nice one.

 

Are you referring to the hanged man's elongated neck or the unusual pattern on the back of the ghost's jacket? Both, neither?

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