----- Original Message ----- On Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:15:39 -0400, Stephen Black wrote:
I am glad that you were not impulsive and took your time in replying to my post. I am sure you took the time to work on addressing the points I made about 12 days ago. > On 28 Sep 2009 at 9:20, Mike Palij wrote: >> There is an interesting "book" review in the NY Times which >> is titled "Algorithm and Blues". The book it reviews is a comic >> book or, as the cool kids might call it, graphic novel >>snip> > >> Can psychologists expect similar treatment in the "sequential art" form? > > The answer is yes, but subject to the qualification that the > individual so memorialized is actually a psychologist, which > some would question. Inevitably, it's a comic book about Freud. > > The book is: > > Introducing Freud: A graphic guide to the father of > psychoanalysis (2007) by Richard Appignanesi and Oscar > Zarate > > You can check it out using Amazon.com's "look inside" feature. A few points: (1) It is a stretch to call Freud a psychologist, especially as we understand the term today. If one were to do so, one would probably have to include other psychoanalysts, such as Jung, in which case you forgot to suggest this book which is available on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/yjkfsef (2) There is a big difference between a "graphic guide" which provides images as in a story book and a comic book/graphic novel. I don't know how familiar you are with the distinction but if you have not read many comic books/graphic novels and are not familiar with the concept of "sequential art", I would suggest the folloing book by comic book great Will Eisner (most famous for the Spirit character and his role in the business of the comics from the 1940s onward): http://tinyurl.com/ylm8alt (There is page on Amazon devoted to books by Eisner, see: http://www.amazon.com/Will-Eisner/e/B000APEOIE/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1 and Eisner wrote a graphic novel explaining the plot to promote the fraudulent "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" against the Jews: http://www.amazon.com/Plot-Secret-Story-Protocols-Elders/dp/0393328600/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_8 ) The crtieria you seem to be using to define a "graphic novel" would seem to include things like "The Cartoon Guide to Statistics"; see" http://tinyurl.com/ygwx9yl or "The Magna Guide to Statistics"; see: http://www.amazon.com/Manga-Guide-Statistics-Shin-Takahashi/dp/1593271891/ref=pd_cp_b_3 Neither of which would really satisfy a fanboy's definition of graphic novel. To make the difference clearer, compare the book you suggested to a comic book version of Nicholas Meyer's "The 7 Percent Solution" which features both Freud and Sherlock Holmes (who has a huge cocaine jones); see http://tinyurl.com/ygwpbha Unfortunately, "The 7 Percent Solution" was never made into a comic book/graphic novel but it was made into a movie which may give you an idea of what a graphic novel might have looked like (well, maybe the magna version but I haven't examined its contents while I own a copy of Gopnik's cartoon guide to stats).. So, if you take a look at the books "Watchmen", "Sin City", "V for Vendetta", "The Dark Knight" and others (last I checked, Barnes & Noble had a section devoted to graphic novels; I assume other bookseller may have the same), you will get a better appreciation of the art form. I strongly recommend "Watchmen" but that's only because I'm a long time fan. (3) If we were to allow psychoanalysts/psychiatrists in comics books to represent psychology, then a better claim is made by EC comics. For background on EC comics, see the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertaining_Comics EC comics was an innovative comic book company which produced a number of very interesting comics (both topically and visually; a number of Ray Bradbury stories were made into comics) and produced such comics as "Tales from the Crypt", "Mad", "Weird Science" and "Weird Fantasy" among others. However, Fredric Wertham's campaign against violence and horror in comics and the subsequent U.S. congressional hearings on juvenile delinquincy, forced many comic book publishers to police themselves with the creation of the "Comics Code Authority" which would limit what could be shown in comic books. For EC comics, this meant that they had to drop most of their existing titles and to produce new titles. Although innovative, these new titles did poorly in sales. Among these new comics was one with the curious title "Psychoanalysis". A description of this limited run (only 4 issues) series plus the cover of the first issue is provided at: http://www.politedissent.com/archives/855 The artist Jack Kamen provided many covers to EC titles including "Psychoanalysis" and a sample of his work, including issue #3 of "Psychoanalysis" (with Comics Code Authority stamp!) is provided here: http://www.sci.fi/~karielk/kamehome.htm In an attempt to stay in business, EC started to publish magazines (even turning "Mad" from comic format to magazine format) with lurid titles. One is "Shock Illustrated" which ran for 3 issues; see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_Illustrated What is significant about "Shock Illustrated" is that the first issue boasted on its cover "Adult Psychoanalytical Tales"; see: http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/shock-illustrated-1-ec-picto-fiction-from Click on the image of the cover to see a larger picture. Incidentally, I have a copy of this somewhere. So, if one would like to make a claim for comic books (from which many graphic novels derived) that had psychology (loosely defined) first presented in them, then I would suggest Bill Gaines' "Psychoanalysis" probably does it, and back in 1955! (4) What I had in mind would be something like the series "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" but instead of being populated by famous characters from the action-adventure-horror literatures, (see http://tinyurl.com/yhdswlx ) by American psychologists, perhaps using the first meeting of the American Psychological Association as part of the context. > Some years ago, I directed an earlier version of this book to the > attention of a well-known Freud scholar and critic, whose name > you would know in a minute if I let it slip. I recall that he > pronounced it a bad (i.e. inaccurate) book. But the cartoons are > pretty good. You must have found that to be a very satisfying experience. By the way, much of the EC library has been reprinted, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EC_Archives and http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_0_5?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=ec+archives&sprefix=ec+ar but it does not look like "Psychoanalysis" is being included. -Mike Palij New York University m...@nyu.edu P.S. Bill Gaines was the publisher for EC Comics as well as Mad Magazine. He was actually studying chemistry at NYU and was going to become a teacher. Here is a quote from his entry on Wikipedia: |Stationed at DeRidder Army Airfield in Louisiana, he was |reassigned to Marshall Field in Kansas and then to Governor's Island, |New York. Leaving the service in 1946, he returned home to complete |his chemistry studies at Brooklyn Polytech, but soon transferred to |New York University, intent on obtaining a teaching certificate. |In 1947, he was in his senior year at NYU when his father was |killed in a motorboat accident on Lake Placid. Instead of becoming |a chemistry teacher, he took over the family business, EC Comics. Incidentally, Brooklyn Polytech is now a part of NYU and is known as NYU-Poly. --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
