---
Title: 'Mike Fright' Is Explained by Dr. Adler
Description: Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California), 13 August 1936, p. 16 D ("Radio News and Daily Programs"). Short interview by K. L. Ecksan with Alfred Adler at the reception in the Palace Hotel, San Francisco, after his broadcast over KGO on Tuesday, 11 August 1936.
Author: Alfred Adler
URL: https://adler.school/archivo/adler/entrevistas/original/1936-08-13%20%27Mike%20Fright%27%20Is%20Explained%20by%20Dr.%20Adler
---


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# 'MIKE FRIGHT' IS EXPLAINED BY DR. ADLER

## Modern Phobia Is Compared By Eminent Psychologist To Old Time Phone Fear

By K. L. ECKSAN

Mike jitters, most modern of phobias, is nothing but old-fashioned telephone fright brought up to date.

Anxious to learn why the most seasoned actors and lecturers are sometimes smitten with quakings and paralysis when brought face to face with that small but formidable bit of mechanism known as a microphone, I posed this question to Dr. Alfred Adler of Vienna, the celebrated psychologist, psychiatrist and phyiscian. Dr. Adler was guest of honor at a buffet dinner and reception at the Palace Hotel following his broadcast over KGO Tuesday night.

<!-- En medio de la columna, fotografía sin relación con el texto, con el pie «HELEN JEPSON». -->

It seemed an opportune time to settle, once and for all, a question to which I for one, had never been able to find a satisfactory answer.

"Why are ordinarily poised and self-possessed persons who think nothing of delivering an extempore talk from a lecture platform so often stricken dumb or ga-ga when confronted with a miscrophone?

The gentle, unruffled man of science, who appears to be the embodiment of his teachings, replied:

"It is because they fear the unseen enemy."

He developed the point further:

"They are like people who are afraid to use the telephone. They cannot see what lies beyond."

"And the remedy, for mike fright?" I asked.

"Recognize and understand your fear."

Harried professionals and trembling amateurs, there's the answer to your problem offered by the highest possible authority. Maybe that's why studio audiences are in such favor with broadcasters and sponsors.

Science is making the mike less cumbersome and formidable looking every year. Which brings to mind a remark Sam ("Schlepperman") Hearn made to me at the San Francisco Press Club following the Jack Benny broadcast across the bay a good many moons ago.

"I'm used to the new ribbon mikes," Sam said. "Those old-fashioned mikes are a mental hazard."

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*Fuente:* transcripción a partir de la imagen de la página en la California Digital Newspaper Collection (CDNC, OT19360813.1.15): *Oakland Tribune*, Oakland, 13 de agosto de 1936, p. 16 D, página «Radio News and Daily Programs». El OCR de la CDNC se ha corregido íntegramente con la imagen. Se conservan las erratas del original («phyiscian», «miscrophone») y la comilla de cierre que falta tras la pregunta del periodista.