Dr. Peter Neubauer, a child psychiatrist and researcher who raised public alarms early on about the possible effects of television violence on the emotional development of children, died Feb. 15 in New York. He was 94.
Dr. Neubauer’s death was confirmed by his family.
In 1960, as part of a Columbia University panel looking at the issue, Dr. Neubauer contended that television could provoke nightmares in young viewers and lead to emotional problems. He sparred with another panel member, Random House publisher Bennett Cerf, who defended television as an intellectual tonic. Dr. Neubauer replied that repeated displays of violence could have only a malignant influence, especially for children ages 4 to 7.
Dr. Neubauer, who also was a psychoanalyst and a student of Sigmund Freud’s daughter Anna, long held prominent platforms in child psychology. From 1951 to 1985 he was director of the Child Development Center of the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services in New York, where he studied the emotional health and development of prepubescent children.
Beginning in the 1950s, Dr. Neubauer was frequently quoted in news publications, offering consoling words for parents of troubled children and advocating for sensitivity in dealing with childhood challenges including nursery school and summer camp.
He found gunplay among boys to be commonplace and probably encouraged by watching television, but he wanted to better understand the reasons for children’s aggressive impulses and find ways to guide them to more constructive ends.
