In 1954, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham testified before the US Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, leading to the creation of the Comics Code Authority and redirecting the path of the comic book in the United States. Wertham and other practitioners utilized the discourse of psychoanalysis to decry comics at these hearings and in their writings.¹1 In 1948, Wertham organized a symposium entitled, “The Psychopathology of Comic Books,” the proceedings of which were printed in the American Journal of Psychotherapy (Wertham 472–90). In 1954, Wertham published Seduction of the Innocent, wherein he used many psychoanalytic ideas to deride comics.
Yet at the same time, many of those concepts were gaining traction in popular culture and would become a source of inspiration for comics creation as the Silver Age of Comics ushered in the psychological hero, drawing upon the rise of popular psychology in the United States led by the fame of psychoanalysis.²2 Psychoanalysis became the gold standard for clinical practice after the Second World War, and it also became a cultural phenomenon: “From its prewar days as a bonbon among the wealthy and intellectual elite, psychoanalysis transformed itself into a populist therapy for a postwar middle class intimately familiar with the concept of repression” (Samuel xix). For further discussion of the rise of psychoanalysis, see Hale; Herzog; and Zaretsky.
Before the Silver Age began, though, psychoanalysis itself—then the queen of psychiatric practice—found a compelling, dramatic voice in comics not through the powerful practitioners but rather the patients themselves. In particular, for a brief period in 1955, EC Comics published Psychoanalysis, which bore witness to the popularity and perhaps even the efficacy of the practice of this strange new method of psychoanalysis (Figure 1). The series provided a fascinating middle ground in the battle between comics as a medium and the guardians of mental health, offering insight into what would come next in comics.

The new hero with a new story and new goals—the analyst working to understand the mind—emerged as one response to the Comics Code Authority regulating the horror comics genre, one of EC Comics’ mainstay productions at that point, out of existence. But if horror was to be regulated away, it had to go somewhere! Psychoanalysis provided Gaines and Feldstein with a new vocabulary for another kind of terror they could explore—one they were becoming acquainted with in their analyses—that which was in the mind. The shift was natural because horror comics documented the anxiety of the postwar world, and clinical psychoanalysis offered reprieve from that same problem. As Art Spiegelman suggests, “we might consider the EC horror comics that bloomed in the 1950s as a secular American Jewish response to Auschwitz” (Chute 14). The analyst in Psychoanalysis now translates the imagery of horror comics into metaphor, putting into words the struggles of the mind: anxiety was “as lethal as a revolver” (Keyes and Kamen, Psychoanalysis #1 20) and the patient feared “the horror of realizing [their] dream” (Keyes and Kamen, Psychoanalysis #1 24). Comics creators did not lose their interest in exploring postwar anxiety with the ban on horror comics. Rather, it was reframed³3 The postwar period was known as the “Age of Anxiety.” The currency of that phrase owed to W. H. Auden’s book-length poem, The Age of Anxiety, published in 1947. Of course, anxiety existed before Freud and psychoanalysis, but now it had social currency; see Menand 189–208.
through psychoanalytic psychiatry, which in the United States filtered everything through the individual. These comics followed suit as creators looked inward, creating “a truly new genre” that “attempted to do what it has become clear today comics excel at: visualizing the workings of the individual mind on the page, especially memory as a process, and revealing the imbrication of past and present as a psychic structure through a visualized grammar” (Chute 101–02). The turn in comics to the tormented mind marked a shift away from the horrors of the outside world, opening a new frontier: the human psyche and the terror held within it.

While Feldstein’s comment that analysis was the “thing to do” may have been hyperbole, Gaines echoes this commentary in another interview, where he also identifies his analysis as inspiration: “I was putting out comics that I thought would not be criticized.” He continues, “But I didn't do them to mollify anybody.” Gaines recalls, “This whole new [endeavor] . . . we put out a whole new line of comics . . . and Psychoanalysis was because I was undergoing it [analysis] at that time” (“An Interview with William M. Gaines” 89–90). Both Gaines and Feldstein point to their analyses as inspiration for this series and independently admit that a comic depicting psychoanalysis would be more acceptable. Moreover, Feldstein directly links the act of censoring horror to the emergence of this new type of story. Many of the “New Direction” series had antecedents in previously published genres, and Psychoanalysis was no different as it reframed the horror comic.

EC Comics circulated these newly popular psychological ideas in Psychoanalysis, yet this sequential art form remains the oft-neglected medium in the history of the psychologization of America.⁵5 For John Burnham, “Freud, accurately or inaccurately, became the emblem particularly of that complex historical process that scholars have often referred to as the ‘psychologization’ of America” (1). Historical figures including Wertham remain absent from this history of the popularization of psychoanalysis despite his infamous work representing the once revered status of the psychoanalytic psychiatrist. Lawrence Samuel, in his study of psychoanalysis in popular culture, refers to Wertham as a psychiatrist interested in psychoanalysis but not in the context of comics (or the hearings) despite referencing Psychoanalysis in the same book.
Too often presented as a joke,⁶6 Samuel refers to the rise of psychoanalysis as “undeniably funny,” seeing as there were many cartoons depicting the practice, and further states that “There was, briefly, even a comic book called Psychoanalysis, the pulpish magazine published by EC Comics in 1955 lasting just four issues. (Its editor, Al Feldstein, moved on to Mad magazine the following year, something funny in itself)” (70–71, 79). Insinuating that Psychoanalysis was funny suggests that Samuel did not open up the comic. The analyses of the character’s minds were not only complex, but the series was educational, with introductions to the theories of psychoanalysis and a biography of Sigmund Freud, as well as short essays, in each issue.
the series lives on in collected editions of EC Comics but is often forgotten or overlooked, and when the series appears in histories, it is often only in passing.⁷7 Karen Starr and Lewis Aron give the series its most sustained attention when they discuss Jewish belief and psychoanalysis (166–81). Paul Buhle previously pondered this idea: “Gaines published a line of comics, EC (for ‘Educational Comics’), some of which could only be Jewish (who else would put out Psychoanalysis Comics?)” (12, author emphasis). In response to Buhle, Sheng-Mei Ma declares, “Despite the fact that this insinuation is cast as a rhetorical question, it remains wildly speculative and totally unfounded” (124).
While the relation between comics creators and psychoanalysts may not have been as “overheated” as it was with Hollywood (Farber and Green), there is a history of creators in analysis. The story that remains to be told is how the popularity of psychoanalysis spurred two of the most well-recognized figures in comics history to depict a comic psychoanalysis and the insights it offers into comics history. Thus, this article features Psychoanalysis, a series inspired by the personal analyses of EC Comics owner, Bill Gaines, and editor, Al Feldstein, written by Daniel Keyes⁸8 In the following decade, Keyes would write Flowers for Algernon.
and penciled by Jack Kamen to understand one way horror was reframed in comics through the theory and practice of 1950s US psychoanalysis.

1954 年，精神病学家弗雷德里克·沃特姆 (Fredric Wertham) 在美国参议院司法委员会的少年犯罪调查小组委员会作证，导致漫画代码管理局的创建，并重新引导了漫画书在美国的发展路径。Wertham 和其他从业者利用精神分析的话语在这些听证会上和他们的著作中谴责漫画。¹1 1948 年，Wertham 组织了一次题为“漫画书的精神病理学”的研讨会，会议记录发表在美国心理治疗杂志( Wertham 472-90) 上。1954年，韦瑟姆出版了《诱惑无辜》，其中他用了许多精神分析的思想来嘲笑漫画。
但与此同时，随着漫画的白银时代迎来了心理英雄，借鉴了美国流行心理学的兴起，其中许多概念在流行文化中越来越受欢迎，并成为漫画创作的灵感来源。由于精神分析的名声。²2精神分析在二战后成为临床实践的黄金标准，也成为一种文化现象：“从战前作为富人和知识精英中的糖果开始，精神分析转变为一种针对战后中产阶级的民粹主义疗法。非常熟悉镇压的概念”（塞缪尔十九世）。有关精神分析兴起的进一步讨论，请参见Hale；赫尔佐格；和扎列茨基。
然而，在白银时代开始之前，精神分析本身——当时是精神病学实践的女王——在漫画中找到了一种引人注目的、戏剧性的声音，不是通过强大的从业者而是通过患者本身。尤其是在 1955 年的短暂时期，EC Comics 出版了《精神分析》，它见证了这种奇怪的精神分析新方法的受欢迎程度，甚至可能证明了这种做法的有效性（图 1）。该系列在漫画作为媒介和心理健康守护者之间的斗争中提供了一个迷人的中间立场，让人们深入了解漫画的下一步发展。

拥有新故事和新目标的新英雄——致力于理解思想的分析师——是对漫画规范管理局规范恐怖漫画类型的一种回应，当时 EC 漫画的主要作品之一已经不复存在。但是，如果要控制恐怖，它必须去某个地方！精神分析为盖恩斯和费尔德斯坦提供了另一种恐怖的新词汇，他们可以探索另一种恐怖——他们在分析中逐渐熟悉了——在头脑中的恐怖。这种转变是很自然的，因为恐怖漫画记录了战后世界的焦虑，而临床精神分析提供了对同一问题的缓解。正如 Art Spiegelman 所建议的那样，“我们可能会将 1950 年代盛行的 EC 恐怖漫画视为美国犹太人对奥斯威辛集中营的世俗反应”（Chute14)。精神分析中的分析师现在将恐怖漫画的意象转化为隐喻，用语言表达内心的挣扎：焦虑“像左轮手枪一样致命”（凯斯和卡门，精神分析#1 20），而患者害怕“实现 [他们的] 梦想”（凯斯和卡门，精神分析#1 24）。漫画创作者并没有因为恐怖漫画的禁令而失去探索战后焦虑的兴趣。相反，它被重新定义了³3战后时期被称为“焦虑时代”。这句话的流行归功于 WH Auden 1947 年出版的一首长诗《焦虑时代》。当然，焦虑在弗洛伊德和精神分析之前就存在了，但现在它有了社会传播；看到梅南189-208。
通过精神分析精神病学，在美国，它通过个人过滤一切。随着创作者向内看，这些漫画紧随其后，创造了“一种真正的新类型”，“试图做今天已经清楚的漫画擅长的事情：在页面上可视化个人思想的运作，尤其是作为一个过程的记忆，并揭示通过可视化语法将过去和现在叠加为一种心理结构”（Chute 101-02）。漫画转向受折磨的心灵标志着远离外部世界的恐怖，开辟了一个新的领域：人类的心灵和内心的恐惧。

虽然费尔德斯坦关于分析是“要做的事情”的评论可能有点夸张，但盖恩斯在另一次采访中回应了这一评论，他还将他的分析视为灵感：“我正在推出我认为不会受到批评的漫画。” 他继续说道，“但我这样做并不是为了安抚任何人。” 盖恩斯回忆说，“这是全新的 [努力] 。. . 我们推出了全新的漫画系列。. . 而精神分析是因为我当时正在接受它[分析]”（“对威廉·M·盖恩斯的采访” 89-90）。盖恩斯和费尔德斯坦都指​​出他们的分析是本系列的灵感来源，并独立承认描绘精神分析的漫画更容易被接受。此外，费尔德斯坦将审查恐怖的行为与这种新型故事的出现直接联系起来。许多“新方向”系列都有以前出版的类型的前身，精神分析也没有什么不同，因为它重新定义了恐怖漫画。

EC Comics 在精神分析中传播了这些新流行的心理思想，但这种连续的艺术形式仍然是美国心理化史上经常被忽视的媒介。⁵5对于约翰·伯纳姆来说，“弗洛伊德无论准确还是不准确，都成为了学者们经常称为美国'心理化'的复杂历史进程的象征”（1）。尽管他臭名昭著的作品代表了精神分析精神病学家曾经受人尊敬的地位，但包括沃特姆在内的历史人物仍然没有出现在精神分析普及的历史中。劳伦斯·塞缪尔 (Lawrence Samuel) 在他对流行文化中的精神分析的研究中称，沃瑟姆是一位对精神分析感兴趣的精神病学家，尽管在同一本书中提到了精神分析，但他在漫画（或听证会）的背景下却并不感兴趣。
经常被当作玩笑，⁶6塞缪尔将精神分析的兴起称为“不可否认的有趣”，因为有许多漫画描绘了这种做法，并进一步指出“简而言之，甚至有一本名为《精神分析》的漫画书，这是 EC Comics 于 1955 年出版的低俗杂志仅持续四个问题。（它的编辑 Al Feldstein 第二年转到了Mad杂志，这本身就很有趣）”（70-71, 79）。影射精神很有趣表明，萨穆埃尔没有打通漫画。对人物思想的分析不仅复杂，而且还具有教育意义，每期都介绍了精神分析理论和西格蒙德·弗洛伊德的传记以及短文。
该系列继续存在于 EC Comics 的收藏版中，但经常被遗忘或忽视，当该系列出现在历史中时，它往往只是昙花一现。⁷7凯伦·斯塔尔 (Karen Starr) 和刘易斯·阿伦 (Lewis Aron) 在讨论犹太信仰和精神分析 (166-81) 时给予该系列最持久的关注。Paul Buhle之前曾考虑过这个想法：“Gaines 出版了一系列漫画，EC（为'教育漫画'），其中一些只能是犹太人（还有谁会推出精神分析漫画？）”（12，作者强调）。在回应 Buhle 时，马盛美宣称：“尽管这种暗示被视为一个修辞问题，但它仍然是疯狂的投机性和完全没有根据的”（124）。
虽然漫画创作者和精神分析家之间的关系可能不像好莱坞（法伯和格林）那样“过热”，但在分析中存在创作者的历史。有待讲述的故事是，精神分析的流行如何促使漫画史上最知名的两位人物描绘漫画精神分析及其对漫画历史的见解。因此，本文以精神分析为特色，这是一系列灵感来自 EC Comics 所有者 Bil​​l Gaines 和编辑 Al Feldstein 的个人分析，由 Daniel Keyes 撰写⁸8在接下来的十年里，凯斯将为阿尔杰农写花。
并由杰克·卡门 (Jack Kamen) 撰写，以了解通过 1950 年代美国精神分析的理论和实践在漫画中重新构建恐怖的一种方式。