Psychologist Declares Book Ban Good Idea
Dr. Adler of Vienna Says Boston May Have Right Plan, Even if Motive is Questionable.
Vienna—Maybe Boston is right. Maybe books should be suppressed, Dr. Alfred Adler, famous Viennese psychologist, thinks.
Dr. Adler has just returned to his native city after a highly successful season at Columbia University. For his achievements in psychology at home and abroad the Vienna city government has now made him an "honored citizen."
But books and Boston bother Dr. Adler although he is 4,000 miles away from the scene of that conflict and busy with lectures at the University of Vienna and private consultations.
"I may be taking a great deal on myself in saying it," Dr. Adler said, "but as a psychologist I believe in the suppression of books.
Would Ban Many Books
"There are many books I would not permit children to read. There are many others I would not permit laymen to read. Only the well-equipped mind can appreciate certain books."
Like other censors the "Herr Doktor" believes he himself is immune to the effects of the books he would shut to the public. While John A. Sumner would have vice suppressors decide the censorship and Reed Smoot have United States senators, Dr. Adler would place the decision in the hands of psychologists.
"I, for instance, can read these books and not be harmed," he said. "But there are many minds which would not be able to grasp the truth or the falsity of the contents of certain books. Not all of these books are fiction. Many are scientific."
Grandmothers that turn into wolves, dogs with eyes as large as saucers; boys named Jack who kill giants, the whole caboodle of weird and frightening personages in Grimm, Anderson and other fairy tale tellers would also be sent packing by Dr. Adler.
"Fairy tales are bad for children. Very bad. Certain well-equipped children might survive them, but for the average child they build a host of false images. These false images lead to neuroses, to complexes, inhibitions.
"Books for children should be carefully supervised. Only those carefully passed by psychlogists should be given the child."
Dr. Adler would devise some method for hall-marking books.
"Perhaps a system could be arranged by which a book could be stamped 'To be read only by the psychologist.' Or perhaps only a few pages of other books would have to be stamped.
Dr. Adler brought his hand down hard in a rubber-stamping motion.
"Then Boston is right?"
"Yes, Boston may be right. I understand it is a very puritanical city, but in the suppression of books it may be doing a better thing than throwing them open to all kinds of minds. Now the psychologist might read those books and they wouldn't hurt him. But there are many, many minds which couldn't do that."
Fuente: "Psychologist Declares Book Ban Good Idea", Rochester Times-Union, 21 August 1930, p. 12; unsigned dispatch dated Vienna. Transcribed from the page image at fultonhistory.com (Rochester NY Times Union 1930, 6374), enlarged at 300 dpi, correcting the platform OCR throughout. Spellings "John A. Sumner" (for John S. Sumner), "Anderson" (for Andersen) and "psychlogists" are as printed; the missing closing quotation marks after "books." and "stamped." are also as printed. The same dispatch appeared in the Albany Knickerbocker Press, 24 August 1930 ("Viennese Psychologist Declares Certain Volumes Are Harmful...", dated Vienna, Aug. 23); a rewritten version on fairy tales only, without direct quotations ("War Declared On Fairy Tales"), in the Brooklyn Standard Union, 22 August 1930. Neither was collated.