Fredric Wertham ( 20 March 1895 - 18 November 1981 ) was a Jewish German-American psychiatrist . He was an author who wrote about images in media . Fredric Wertham ( March 20 , 1895 - November 18 , 1981 ) was a Jewish German-American psychiatrist and crusading author who protested the purportedly harmful effects of violent imagery in mass media and comic books on the development of children .