Page 16 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • August 1, 2012 cruelty of depicting women with figures most girls could not hope to emulate. That fact that the theories and heroines were always white and that people of other races were dupes or villains also annoyed him. Dr. Wertham dropped the bomb with “Seduction of the Innocent” in 1954. “The Batman type of story may stimulate children to homosexual fantasies of the nature of which they may not be conscious,” Dr. Wertham wrote. “Only someone ignorant of the fundamentals of psychiatry and of the psychopathology of sex can fail to realize a subtle atmosphere of homoeroticism which pervades the adventures of the mature Batman and his young friend Robin.” The two males, one adult and one adolescent, dressed in skintight costumes and bonding in the Bat Cave without female companionship struck Wertham as a little odd -especially the scenes in which Robin is hurt and Batman takes tender care of him. Dr. Wertham also believed the courageous and assertive self-reliant Wonder Woman was a lesbian. Dr. Wertham was fortunate to be affiliated with the New York Police Department, because when “Seduction of the Innocent” hit the bookstores, he was furiously denounced by people who may or may not have secretly wanted to be in the ol’ Bat Cave -- or perhaps simply treasured the freedom of speech required to utter words like “biff” and “pow” in caption balloons. Copies of the first edition of “Seduction of the Innocent” bring huge prices from comic book collectors who want to commemorate how savagely they were defamed by Dr. Wertham. Of course there was nothing to it -- or was there? Grant Morrison, a writer for both Batman and Batman Incorporated, told Playboy, “Gayness is built into Batman. I’m not using gay in the pejorative sense but Batman is very, very gay…Obviously as a fictional character he’s intended to be heterosexual, but the basis of the whole concept is utterly gay.” George Clooney, who played Batman in “Batman & Robin,” said that he played Batman as gay in the movie even though he thought Batman was straight in the comic books. Meanwhile, William Moulton Marston said Wonder Woman had a bondage subtext, and the original 1941 comic books describe Wonder Woman and her friends living on the island of Lesbos without any men around to get in the way of things. Why is any of this important? Dr. Wertham was denounced as a “McCarthyist” after he opened the putative door of Batman’s closet and explored the etymology of Wonder Woman’s island. This was despite the fact that he was an anti-racist, a staunch Jewish anti-Nazi, and the instigator of a free mental health clinic in Harlem -- not usually credentials of the American ultra-right. Dr. Wertham may have corresponded with Sigmund Freud, but he appears to have absorbed his basic mental health rubric from Dr. Richard Krafft-Ebing, author of “Psychopathia Sexualis” (1886). Dr. Krafft-Ebing opposed the criminalization of homosexual acts in the notorious Article 175 of the Imperial German constitution, but his philosophical outlook was that normalcy began and ended with acts of copulation that could lead to procreation, and that everything else was an aberration. Krafft-Ebing’s critics emphasize that he was raised Catholic -- although Freud, a secular Jew, also saw homosexuality as based on a failure of maturation, though he was less decisive that Krafft-Ebing, who was not notably religious, either. Dr. Wertham’s idea of normalcy revolved around heterosexual romance culminating in marriage, echoed Krafft-Ebing. Dr. Wertham did not condemn or castigate alternative behavior as criminal, but as a police psychiatrist, he could have hardly failed to notice that either extreme promiscuity or the failure to achieve some sort of sexual normalcy were both common features in crimes that had no financial or vengeful motivation. The typical political assassin is generally described as a young white male loner -- more often straight than gay, but often a functional neuter. (Admittedly John Wilkes Booth was exceptionally functional, but he was also a member of an organized Confederate conspiracy, not the half-crazy actor beloved by the mythologizers.) In the most recent case, the Batman movie murders in Colorado, the suspect, an extremely intelligent young man also described as an isolate, the shooter wrote a paper on “temporal illusion,” which he describes as “an illusion that allows us to change the past” and defined subjective experience as “what takes place inside the mind as opposed to the external world.” The clinical name for an extreme extension of this viewpoint, as Dr. Werthan would have recognized, is called schizophrenia. Ready access for firearms with extreme magazine capacity facilitated killing 12 innocent people and wounding 58 others -- but the fact that the suspect dressed up in a bulletproof costume to render himself invulnerable and used gas bombs and bullets suggests that he identified all too closely with the ambiguous Batman and Robin or with the Batman villains to have a grip on reality. Reality is important -- more important than superheroes of childish comic book fiction. In real life, killing people is vile and disgusting, and totally unacceptable except in cases of extreme self-defense. Dr. Wertham knew that. The film industry either forgot about it, or decided the money was more important than the possible impact of imaginary violence on people whose sanity was already impacted. How do you become an arch-villain when you are an anti-racist, an anti-Stalinist, and an outspoken anti-Nazi with a long career of public service? Easy: You dare to take Batman out of the closet. Sitting next to my work area is a copy of a somewhat neglected book by Dr. Fredric Wertham: “A Sign for Cain.” In that book, Wertham describes the irony of the Nazi T-4 program, in which harmless mentally retarded people and non-violent mental patients were classified as “useless eaters” and deliberately starved to death. Dr. Wertham noted that during the Middle Ages, hospitals were established to protect and feed the mentally incapacitated. During the Nazi era, the same hospitals murdered the patients entrusted to them. Born in Munich in 1895, Wertham received his first medical training at King’s College in London, and ultimately graduated from the University of Wurzberg in Germany in 1921. After a correspondence with Sigmund Freud, Wertham decided to specialize in psychiatric medicine and furthered his studies in Vienna, London, and Paris. He was invited to join the staff of Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1922, and worked in Baltimore for eight years. He became a United States citizen in 1927, married a woman with an education as impressive as his own, and later taught psychiatric medicine at New York University. Dr. Wertham believed that much violent crime could be prevented by psychiatric intervention. He convinced New York City officials to appoint him as the senior psychiatrist of the New York City Department of Hospitals in 1932, where he was assigned to interview all violent felons before their criminal trials. He spoke to a great many serial killers, including Albert Fish, a bisexual sadomasochist and habitual child murderer. Dr. Wertham also treated more mundane alcoholics at Bellevue, and supervised a clinic to help battle-stressed U.S. veterans adapt to peacetime reality during and after World War II. Through his work, he learned a fact that governments would like their citizens to forget: Most people do not want to kill total strangers and often experience severe trauma after doing so. After a long campaign to win official support, Dr. Wertham opened a clinic in Harlem where people could stop in and talk about their troubles for 25 cents, or no fee at all if they could not afford one. Dr. Wertham was the author of medical texts and of “The Dark Legend,” a psychological study of a teen murderer told in the Orestes-Hamlet pattern” with a case study from his own files. The New Yorker called the study “warm, wise, and ably written.” In 1948, Dr. Wertham moved into the danger zone. He wrote that he believed that “comic books represent systematic poisoning of the well of childhood spontaneity.” He said comic books “over-stimulate the children’s fantasy in the direction of violence and cheap sexiness.” He also deplored the advertisement of air rifles and knives in tandem with crime stories where people routinely got shot or had their eyes gouged out, and pointed out the subtle The Batman movie murders: Remember Fredric Wertham? Waldwick Watch Operation Reassurance available The Waldwick Police Department’s Operation Reassurance program is open to all borough residents who are age 55 and older. The program requires the participant to call police headquarters by a prearranged time each day. If the individual fails to call, a communications officer will try to make contact with that person. If there is no answer, a police officer will be dispatched to check on the welfare of that person. The program is free. In December, participants are invited to a holiday luncheon. Anyone who wishes to participate may call police headquarters at (201) 652-5700 or stop in and speak to Sergeant Frank Paccione. Children welcome at library Borough children, ages two and up, are invited to the Waldwick Public Library at 19 East Prospect Street to participate in the Summer Reading Club. This year’s theme is “Dream Big: Read.” The program will continue through Aug. 24. Children who read 10 books that are at or above their grade level will qualify for prizes at the end of the summer. Very young children who do not read may qualify by having 20 books read to them. Sign up at the front desk. Participation in the Summer Reading Club and related special events is open to Waldwick residents only. Artist and entertainer Paul Merklein will close out the summer club’s shows on Aug. 7 at 11:45 a.m. with a unique program that combines dynamic art, comedy, and audience participation. Merklein draws famous faces and people right from the audience. Waldwick children ages three and up are invited to attend. Proof of residency and advance registration are required. Call the library at (201) 652-5104. Waldwick Lions plan annual Carnival The annual Waldwick Lions Club Carnival will take place Aug. 6 through 11 on the Forum School property located on Wyckoff Avenue in Waldwick. Area residents are invited to attend each night from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. for food, rides, games, and an opportunity to win a cash prize. A fireworks display will be held on Wednesday and Friday nights. The Lions will also offer wristband nights on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Those who purchase these specially-priced wristbands will be able to enjoy unlimited rides.