SCHROEDER – THE PUBLIC EXCUSER
A BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE TO WHICH ARE ADDED
SOME PUBLISHED OPINIONS CONCERNING
HIS PERSONAL TRAITS
ARNOLD MADDALON]
STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT
203 Bedford Sł.
|936
ANNOUNCEMENT
THEODORE SCHROEDER CAN BE ENGAGED FOR
FORMAL LECTURES, PARLOR TALKS, SMALL SEMI-
NARS, AND FOR INDIVIDUAL INSTRUCTION. THE
SUBJECTS WILL BE THE PSYCHOLOGIC APPROACH
TO ANY OF OUR HUMAN PROBLEMS. ALTHOUGH
THESE ARE PRACTICALLY NEVER DISCUSSED AS
BEING PSYCHOLOGIC, NEVERTHELESS ALL OUR
HUMAN PROBLEMS ARE BASICALLY PROBLEMS OF
HUMAN NATURE; THAT IS TO SAY, PROBLEMS OF
IMPULSE AND EMOTIONAL INDIGESTION. YES!
ALL HUMAN PROBLEMS ARE INCLUDED, SUCH AS:
CRIME AND MORALS; JUDICIAL DECISIONS AND
THE REARING OF CHILDREN; THE CHURCH AND
JUVENILE DELINQUENCY; EDUCATION AND AD-
VERTISING; LAW ENFORCEMENT AND POLITICS;
PURITANISM AND NUDISM; DEPRESSION AND RE-
COVERY; BUYING AND SELLING; MARRIAGE AND
DIVORCE; LOVE AND HATE; ECONOMICS AND SEX;
RACE-HATREDS AND RIOTS; PEACE AND WAR;
THESE AND ALL THE REST ARE BASICALLY PROB-
LEMS FOR SOME REALLY SCIENTIFIC MENTAL
HYGIENISTS, AND FOR EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOL-
OGISTS. YES! THIS CAN BE SIMPLIFIED FOR
POPULAR AUDIENCES. MUCH OF THIS CAN BE
DONE TO BEST ADVANTAGE DURING PRIVATE
CONSULTATIONS. MAGAZINE AND NEWSPAPER
ARTICLES WILL ALSO BE SUPPLIED. ALWAYS AT
YOUR SERVICE, BY APPOINTMENT, IS: THEODORE
SCHROEDER—TEL. STAMFORD, CONN., 3-2579; P. O.
ROUTE NO. 1, BOX 124, COS COB, CONNECTICUT.
2
ſ”. 7-84 ºn. Seán, 2.42.
(Øcy". /44/4)
SCHROEDER—THE PUBLIC EXCUSER
By
ARNOLD MADDALONI
In certain intellectual circles of Europe, Theodore Schroeder
is perhaps better known than among the people of Stamford, al-
though, for a quarter of a century, he has spent his summers three
miles from there. His is an unusual career. During the period of
his wanderlust, he lived in every State of the Union, from Michi-
gan to New Mexico, and west to the Pacific Ocean. In these
plastic years, he never lived more than a few consecutive months
in any one community, unless perhaps at the University. These
rapidly shifting scenes, when the West had not wholly outgrown
its “wild and woolly” character, prevented the development of
fixed standards of action or thought. In modified form, the in-
satiable curiosity of youth is still working in him, as he pursues
his researches in the remaining uncharted regions of our human
nature.
In maturity, his first home was in Utah, where the Mormons
still furnished a national storm center. Now the youthful wander-
lust seems to have been wholly outgrown, and his life of a popu-
lar crusader began. Toward the end of his stay there, he was re-
garded as the stormy petrel of Utah. He closed that career with
the successful prosecution of Brigham H. Roberts, the polygamous
congressman-elect, and securing his exclusion from the House of
Representatives. As a lawyer in Utah, Schroeder became inter-
ested in the constitutional problems arising out of Mormon polyg-
amy and the Church-State issue. All of these problems arose
out of a peculiar theology, which started Schroeder's interest in the
psychology of religion and of sex. All this he later developed to
an unusual degree. Young Schroeder sought new worlds to con-
quer, by moving to New York City, with a summer home on a
farm north of Cos Cob, Connecticut. Now he developed the
specialty of a consultant on constitutional questions involving per-
sonal liberty, and some questions of medico-legal psychology.
Out of this grew a half dozen ponderous volumes, all of a techni-
cal nature.
His intellectual curiosity next led Schroeder to the adventure
of submitting himself for psychoanalysis. Because of the new
insight which that gave him, he discarded all of his former psycho-
logic theories, and much that he had written from that viewpoint.
The crusader was evolving to a more sober controversialist. From
now on, Schroeder concentrated even more on the method and
theory of the new psychology, as the key for solving all our social
problems, especially those of mental hygiene, education, crime and
law, but including also such as politics, economics and war. He
now claims that the better remedies for our human problems can
be found only by the further maturing of our impulses and intel-
lectual methods, especially as these are expressed in moral, social,
or economic theories, and in the resulting laws, and judicial de-
cisions. He applies this new psychologic technique and theory to
all social, legal and personal problems. He has been called the
3
“gadfly of psychology” and “a public excuser.” The latter title
came to him because of his unusual tolerance, based upon his
larger sympathetic understanding and the absence of all moral
judgments on his part, toward any of our human frailties. It is
in defense of this tolerance, that he now acts as a gadfly among the
intolerant ones.
Schroeder discredits excusers as well as accusers. He reasons
like this: We do not condemn or punish persons for not being as
wise as Edison, Einstein, or Burbank, nor for having scarlet
fever. We should have the same feelingless, scientific attitude
toward delinquents and criminals. Then there is nothing to for-
give, punish, or excuse. Instead we explain all in terms of cause
and effect, and treat the causes of anti-social behavior by scien-
tific methods. That implies a new conception of mental hygiene
and of education.
Lately Schroeder emerged as the proponent of a “New Phi-
losophy of Life.” This is based upon the finding that in all our
misfortunes there is a dominant but neglected defect in our own
mentality. This he thinks true of every human problem, from
sex and education, to religion, economics and war. Consequently,
our unhappiness is seen, not only as something that comes to us
from without, but as something that we bring upon ourselves, by
our own subconscious defects. His group of psychologists know
how to correct these. The remedy begins with an introduction to
our unknown self, and proceeds by a wholly new kind of educa-
tional discipline.
Schroeder is no longer a propagandist for any particular leg-
islative reforms, because he believes that our mistaken conceptions
of education are the root of most of our evils. The remedies
must come through a different kind of education and its democrati-
zation. When asked what is wrong with education, he threatened
to write a book and compel me to read it. Under further urging
he condensed his book into this paragraph: “As it is practiced,
education wholly ignores human nature, in the process of its evolv-
ing to maturity. Education, as it should be, will center wholly
around the maturing of our impulses and intellectual methods.
At present education deals only with the obvious intellectual,
physical and social reactions—the symptoms of inner processes.
The future education will deal mainly with the subconscious causes
which control those symptoms. In this way, mental hygiene, edu-
cation, sociology and economics, will become scientific, because the
Evolution of human nature is no longer excluded.” I agreed
that he should write the book, but not that I be compelled to under-
stand it.
Schroeder's literary output has already appeared in more than
one hundred and sixty different periodicals, not of the popular
variety, and scattered through six languages. They have included
professional journals devoted to theology, religious psychology,
medicine, sociology, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, law and medico-
legal subjects. Last year, when he lectured in Stamford, one of
the editors of the Advocate had never heard of him. This is the
prophet who is known only away from his summer home of a
quarter of a century.
THEODORE SCHROEDER
AS SEEN BY OTHERS
Selected by
ARNOLD MADDALONI
Hereafter, follow some extracts from published opinions about
Theodore Schroeder. These cover only estimates of his person-
ality. As to the period when he was a “mormon eater,” the ma-
terial is too voluminous, and only fragments of it have been pre-
served. His career as a lawyer in New York City is also left for
compilation at another time. A. M.
GENERAL
A man of action as well as of meditation. (H. Tullsen, in:
Truth Seeker)
Theodore Schroeder, of Cos Cob, Conn., discusses Sex and
Censorship in an interesting manner. Mr. Schroeder's intellectual
output has appeared in over one hundred and forty [now 160]
different periodicals, none of them of the so-called popular variety,
and published in four [now 6] languages. * * * He attended the
University of Wisconsin, where he studied mechanical engineer-
ing, and later graduated in civil engineering and law. All this later
education should not be accounted against him, he claims, because
his intellect escaped without standardization. Since 1915 he has
used psychoanalytic technic as a method of research. * * * His
more general task is that of introducing the psychoanalytic ap-
proach to all the social sciences. According to his own sense of
values his most important work will be the future formulation of
the subjective aspect of evolution in our intellectual methods.
He disclaims any pastime, occupation or hobby other than
what is implied in the foregoing statements, namely: always to
live his life at the maturest intellectual level of which he is capable.
He asserts that a well unified personality needs no other ambition,
in relation to anything that can confront one. (Medical Journal
and Record)
WITTY AND INTERESTING
One of the best lectures given before the convocation this year.
(Daily Cardinal, Madison, Wisc.)
One of the most interesting talks I ever heard. (Editorial:
Our Town, Greenwich, Conn.)
The lecture was interesting throughout. (Brooklyn Citizen)
Witty and almost convincing. (Chicago Herald)
5
A brilliant lawyer and writer. * * * Real talent. * * * A
most delightful companion—droll, convincing and sincere. (Polly
Pry in: Denver Post)
Bright and witty, if a trifle advanced in doctrine. (Brigham
Buglar, Utah)
One of the most interesting of all the Mormon Eaters. (Bos-
ton Transcript)
Mr. Schroeder has a fine vein of sarcasm and ironic humor.
* * * Taking no sides, like an Irishman at Donnebrook Fair, hits
wherever he sees an available head. (The Builder, St. Louis, Mo.)
THE NATIONAL NEwsPAPER ConFERENCE [at Madison, Wis-
consin]. I don't want to use a megaphone to call your attention
to the scenery [attending the debate at that conference] but just
want to pay a tribute to the delicious satire of my friend Schroeder.
I think the hardest things which have been said about the private
conscience of the public press, have been encased in the beautiful
tight-fitting gloves in which Mr. Schroeder handed it to those
gentlemen. (The Searchlight)
UNIQUE
One of the unique productions of the West. (New York
Tribune)
Theodore Schroeder advanced some entirely new and star-
tling remedies for social betterment. (Washington, D.C., Herald)
One who is different. (Magazine of Sigma Chi)
A cold enthusiast. One of the most unique men in the coun-
try. (New York Globe)
An unconventional and non-professional educator. A con-
troversialist of ability, with great intellectual ingenuity, and pa-
tience for original research. (Lawyer and Banker, New Orleans)
A maverick psychologist. One of the most interesting figures
alive in America today. (New Humanist, Chicago)
A unique heathen. (Freethinker, London, England)
An interesting and remarkable innovation in the line of legal
treatises. (Maine Law Review)
We like to see a man with a grouch and the candor to confess
it. Hence, we have enjoyed this book. (The Brief)
A superspecialist on liberty. (Paladin, St. Louis)
A useful crank. (Editorial, Evening Post, Chicago)
A lawbook unlike any hitherto published. (Editorial Review)
A very unique speech. (Brooklyn Times)
As an exponent of free speech, Mr. Schroeder is in a class by
himself. (Truth Seeker, New York)
6
Theodore Schroeder is in a class all by himself. He neither ad-
mits nor denies any classification. He has defended free-speech
rights of persons as different as anarchists and Catholic priests.
* * * Schroeder is growing gray and has lived a full and varied
life. He has tried almost everything from being a box-car tramp to
working as a mechanical engineer, a civil engineer, a lawyer, a
psychologist, a lecturer and author of much technical literature.
(Bridgeport Herald)
LEADERSHIP
A noted lawyer. (New York Herald)
A national character. (The Ophthalmologist, Chicago)
A leader. (Our Town, Greenwich, Connecticut)
A prominent attorney. (Madison Democrat, Wisconsin)
An able and brilliant writer. (Utah County Democrat)
Schroeder has long been a leader in that little company of
women and men who oppose the social control of ideas. (Chicago
Herald)
Mr. Schroeder is one of the very few men in this country
who is still taking notions of liberty in earnest. (Journal of Ab-
normal Psychology, Boston)
The prominent part which he took in the prosecution of the
case against Brigham H. Roberts, the polygamous congressman
from Utah, gave Mr. Schroeder a national reputation. (The
Arena, Boston)
Foremost among the apostles of freedom is Theodore
Schroeder. I know of no man today who is so consistently and
unobtrusively extending the helping hand to the helpless, as the
master spirit of the Free Speech League. (B. O. Flower in:
Progressive Men and Women, Boston, 1914, p. 293)
AGGRESSIVENESS
A veracious torpedo boat destroyer on legs. (Truth, Salt
Lake City)
Volcanic. (Boston Transcript)
One of the strongest and most aggressive thinkers of the day.
(Arena, Boston) -
Food for thought, for robust intellects. * * * Bold and pow-
'erful. (Humanitarian Review)
No man in this country has fought so long and so well in
behalf of this unpopular cause. (Pearson’s Magazine)
Mr. Schroeder is a vigorous writer, and we believe a well-
intentioned man. But * * * (Secular Thought, Toronto, Canada)
7
COURAGE
Few writers in our day show to any like extent, the moral
courage which Mr. Schroeder evinces. (Journal of Abnormal
Psychology)
A very strong, brave and extremely important paper. * * *
In Theodore Schroeder, America has a fine type of this new
school of thinkers, who are calling the nation back to the old high-
way of freedom. (The Arena, Boston)
Mr. Schroeder is a man of exceptional ability and what is
more, a man whose superb moral courage is matched by sincerity
and loyalty to principles that he believes make for progress.
(Twentieth Century Magazine, Boston)
THOROUGHNESS
A clear writer and dispassionate thinker. Legal and funda-
mental questions are raised and discussed with great ability.
(Medico-Legal Journal)
A bright and brainy man. (Catholic News, New York City)
A masterly production. (Morning Examiner, Ogden, Utah)
Keen thinker and brilliant writer. (The Occident)
A lawyer whose perspicuity and acumen is noted in leading
papers. Wields a trenchant pen. (Journal Observer, Redfield,
S. D.)
While all may not agree with Mr. Schroeder, * * * still we
must recognize his sincerity, and admire his serious, scholarly ef-
forts to make known his convictions. The volume will be found
of special value by lawyers and by all students. (The Light,
official organ of the National Purity Federation.)
A volume * * * extremely able, exhaustive and authoritative
in character, and dealing with a subject vital and fundamental. * * *
Mr. Schroeder as an able member of the bar, * * * has set him-
self the task of bringing before the mind of the American bar,
and especially before men of courage and conviction, a masterly
and exhaustive discussion of the whole question. (Twentieth Cen-
tury Magazine, Boston.)
We are indeed glad that a man of Mr. Schroeder's ability is
sufficiently self-sacrificing to render a service in enlightening the
legal profession and rendering a great service to humanity and
civilization. (Medical Record, Kansas City)
My honest friend Theodore Schroeder * * * with true Ger-
manic thoroughness * * * has traced the institution of marriage
from the beginning of civilized society down to the present day.
* * * The author has read hard for his theme, and it would not
be easy to cite so small a work whose text and foot-notes indicate
more patient labor and research. * * * He has made a terrible
rattling among the bones of mediaevalism. (Michael Monahan,
in: The Papyrus)
ERUDITION
Erudite lawyer and acute psychologist. (Literary Guide,
London, England)
The erudite and exceedingly humanitarian Theodore Schroe-
der, the legal counsellor of our Medico-Legal Society. (Medico-
Legal Journal, New York City)
The book is certainly a great intellectual stimulant. (The
Menace, Aurora, Mo.)
Scholarly manner, a storehouse of information upon the cases
adjudicated by the courts. (Oklahoma Law Journal)
Es ist eine Leistung auf die amerikanische Rechtsforschung
stolz sein darf. (Anthropophyteia, Vienna)
Food-thought for robust intellects. (Humanitarian Review,
Chicago)
The writings of Mr. Schroeder, * * * furnished the text of
a paper before the State Medical Society of Illinois, by Dr. Dens-
low Lewis of Chicago. (Truth Seeker, New York)
One of the great beacon lights of the history of the future.
(Marion Cox, author of: The Dry Rot of Society and Other Es-
says; (Brentano's.) The Crowds and the Veiled Woman; Spiritual
Curiosities; Ventures in Worlds; etc. Quoted from an inscription
to Theodore Schroeder, in the presentation of a book.)
A competent controversialist. * * * Close, accurate and telling
reasoning, * * * adequate documentation * * * endeavors to write
fairmindedly and with courtesy. (Commonweal, New York City)
Exceptional ability. (Medical Herald)
Exhibits considerable erudition. (American Political Science
Review)
No man is possessed of so wide a knowledge of all the data
connected with this subject, and so resourceful an intellect in deal-
ing with it. (The International, New York)
Mr. Schroeder's book + + + will furnish useful materials to
the educators of opinion. (Literary Guide, London, England)
The most valuable contribution to the literature on the sub-
ject. (Alienist and Neurologist)
No one either before him or among his contemporaries has
made himself so much the master of the vast body of material
relative to the numerous aspects of the subject. (Truth Seeker,
New York City)
PSYCHOLOGIST
Theodore Schroeder prompts me to say that this is the clear-
est and cleanest estimate of the human soul that I have ever read.
This idea is big enough to become a sun to a new planetary sys-
tem of thought and action. I find myself wishing that Schroeder
would edit a correspondence course, using such outside material
9
as is extant, and formulating a plan of reading and study which
might lead us up to rational functioning upon all lines. (J. H.
Ostrander in: Unity, Chicago) s
An erudite lawyer and acute psychologist. (Literary Guide,
London, England)
He says that his best education came from unusually diversi-
fied living, made intelligible through submitting to psychoanalysis
by Dr. William A. White. (Medical Journal and Record, New
York)
Theodore Schroeder of Cos Cob is the author of a most in-
structive article in a recent issue of the Medical Review of Reviews
* * * entitled: Mental Hygiene for Non-combatants. It gives one
food for thought on a very important aspect of the war. (Our
Town, Greenwich, Connecticut)
Theodore Schroeder, the famous New York psychologist,
came to visit me. * * * Mr. Schroeder's analysis played a great
part in subsequent developments. (In the subsequent heresy trial
the defense was wholly built around a psychologic approach to the
interpretation of creeds and heresy, and that produced the most
extraordinary heresy trial in history. See: Rt. Rev. Wm. M.
Brown in: My Heresy, New York, 1926; pp. 79-80.)
A psychoanalyst of judges. Theodore Schroeder whose spe-
cialty is constitutional law, and who in analysing decisions, also
psychoanalyses the judges rendering them, that is to say vivisects
their souls, is rendering humanity a great deal of as yet but slightly
recognized service. * * * This book promises to become a legal
classic on the law of blasphemy. * * * Mr. Schroeder emphasises
the psychologic viewpoint. * * * well worth reading, not only by
such as may be interested in the subject of blasphemy, or free
speech, or constitutional law, but by all who are interested in the
psychology of judges, in the why and wherefore of decisions.
(Medico-Legal Journal)
I had heard Theodore Schroeder * * * give to a little group
of Greenwich people, one of the most interesting talks I had ever
heard, upon this very subject of psychoanalysis * * *. Psycho-
analysis deals primarily with the emotions, rather than with the
reasoning faculties, and inasmuch as most of our actions are de-
termined by our emotions rather than our reason, it is correspond-
ingly important. * * * Mr. Schroeder applies psychoanalysis to
the great social problems about us. * * * Says everyone should be
psychoanalyzed. * * * Recently Mr. Schroeder has made some
wonderfully interesting analysis of famous court decisions, show-
ing step by step, how the judges who rendered them were influ-
enced unconsciously by the happenings of their early lives. And
further he goes on to show that the thoroughly honest conscien-
tious lawyer, with the best of conscious motives, may yet be a most
dangerous enemy to society, far more dangerous than the lawyer
who is consciously “crooked.” But that is too long a story to
tell now. (From: Our Town, Greenwich, Conn.)
10
THEODORE SCHROEDER
11

A HUNDRED AND SIXTY PERIODICALS IN six LANGUAGEs, Have PUs.
lished THEODORE SCHROEDER's PSYCHOLOGICAL, PHilosophical, RELIG-
Ious, MEDICAL, Sociological AND LEGAL ESSAYS; *** At the very least,
he is one of the most interesting figures alive in America today.-May-
nard Shipley, Pres. Science League of America, in : The New Humanist,
v. 6, 1933.
Theodore Schroeder's essays on Psychologic subjects have ap-
peared, in the following publications:
apºy Law Journal, Alany.
aiienist AND NEUROLOGIST,
St. Louis, Mo.
AMERICAN_, JOURNAL OF EU-
GENICS, Chicago, Ill.
AMERICAN, JOURNAL OF PSY-
Mass.
RELIG-
LOGY, Worcester,
•AMERICAN JOURNAL OF
IOUS PSYCHOLOGY, Worcester,
Mass.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF UROL-
OGY AND SEXOLOGY, New
York, N. Y.
agº.can MEDICINE, New York,
ARENA, Boston, Mass.
AZOTH, New York, N. Y.
CALIFORNIA LAW REVIEW, Ber-
keley, Calif.
CENTRAL LAW JOURNAL, St.
Louis, Mo.
CRITIC AND GUIDE (Medical),
New York, N. Y.
EVERYMAN, Los Angeles, Calif.
FORUM, New York, N. Y.
FREETHINKER, London,
IMAGO, Vienna and Leipzig
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF
PSYCHOANALYSIS. London, Eng.
JOURNAL OF ABNORMAL PSY-
CHOLOGY, Boston (then Albany,
N. Y. and Hanover, N. H.
JOURNAL OF NERVOUS AND
MENTAL DISEASE, New York,
N. Y.
JOURNAL OF . RELIGIOUS PSY-
CHOLOGY AND ANTHROPOL-
OGY, Worcester, Mass.
JOURNAL OF SEXOLOGY AND
f §§hoanalysis. New York,
LABOR AGE, New York, N. Y.
LIBERAL REVIEW, Chicago, Ill.
º Eng.
12
MÉpical COUNCIL, Philadelphia,
3.
MEDICAL JOURNAL AND REC-
ORD, New York, N. Y. ->
MEDICO-LEGAL JOURNAL, New
York, N. Y.
MEDICAL REVIEW OF REVIEWS,
ew York, N. Y.
MICHIGAN LAW REVIEW, Ann
Arbor, Mich.
MODERN PSYCHOLOGIST, New
York, N. Y.
Mgpiºn THINKER, New York,
MöNišT, Chicago,
Ill.
NATIONAL PICTORIAL MONTH-
ev York
LY, 9 * * * * *
NEW YORK DAILY CALL, New
York, N. Y.
NEW YORK MEDICAL JOURNAL,
New York, N. Y.
OPEN COURT, Chicago, Ill.
PACIFIC MEDICAL JOURNAL, San’
Francisco, Calif. ar
PROCEEDINGS: XV CONGRE IN-
TERNATIONAL, DE MEDICINE,'
Lisbonne, Portugal
PSYCHE, London, Eng.
PSYCHE AND EROS, New York,
N. Y.
PSYCHOANALYTIC REV-I E.W.
Washington, D. C.
SEVEN ARTS, New York, N. Y.
SEXUAL PROBLEME, Frankfurt a.
M., Germany
SOUND’ VIEW, Ollala, Wash.
TRUTH SEEKER, New York, N. Y.
UNITY, Chicago, Ill.
ZEITSCHRIFT. FUR, RELIGION-
SPSYCHOLOGIE, Leipzig, Germany
ZENTRABLATT FUR PSYCHO-
ANALYSE UND PSYCHOTHERA-
PIE, Wiesbaden, Germany