As seen in this report from the Orlando Sentinel, a side bar to an article promoting the new Superman movie Research on the name of the psychiatrist indicates that he died in 1981, and that the hearings probably took place in the 1950's
The Man of Steel, now being compared to Jesus, has come a long way since the mid-1950s, when a U.S. Senate subcommittee held hearings on the relationship between comics and juvenile delinquency.
In it final report, the panel singled out the Superman comic books as being "injurious to the ethical development of children," citing the research and testimony of a New York psychiatrist, Frederic Wertham. Even though Superman is a crime fighter, "Dr. Wertham believes these books arouse fantasies of sadistic joy in seeing other people repeatedly punished while the hero remains immune," the report noted. "He called this the 'Superman complex.' "
The report also detailed a witness account of institutionalized children injuring themselves by jumping off high places in attempts to fly like superheroes. And the senators contended that Superman and his ilk just gave cops a bad reputation.
"In many crime comics, law and order are maintained by supernatural and superhuman heroes, and officers of the law, ineffective in apprehending criminals, must depend on aid from fantastic characters. . . . The impressions obtained from the comic books are contrary to the methodical routine work characteristic of police investigation."
Actually, I think the the shrink had a new personality dis-order. Let's call it "fear of comic book character syndrome" yeh ... that's the ticket
You would think that psychs would have learned better since then, but evidence seems to suggest otherwise, with the accumulation of all kinds of other silly diseases in their diagnosis manual.
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