FREUDIAN STRIPS: COMICS, MENTAL HEALTH, AND THE AMERICAN SUPERHERO (IN-PERSON)

In 1941, psychologist William Moulton Marston created Wonder Woman to advocate for comics to address social issues. In 1948, psychiatrist, Fredric Wertham, took an interest in the medium, seeing the form as a cause of juvenile delinquency in the U.S. He rallied parents and politicians to regulate children’s reading practices, taking his cause to a Senate Subcommittee hearing in 1954. In the course of two decades, mental health specialists left an impact on the industry that shocked the form and altered stories for years. This presentation considers how comics in the U.S. were redefined by the field of mental health.