The Genealogy of Scrabble

The board game Scrabble was invented by Dr. Thomas "Scrabble" Mortenhouse in 1942. Dr. Mortenhouse was a well-known psychiatrist located in the Boston area who noticed that many of his patients were mildly intelligent, yet suffered from low self-esteem, and as a result, were unable to reach their full potential due to lack of self-confidence. In order to curb low-self esteem among the mildly intelligent, Dr. Mortenhouse created the board game Scrabble to help his patients develop self-esteem. Among his patients Scrabble was a remarkably effective tool for nurturing self-confidence for those within the national median IQ range. As a result, the use of Scrabble grew rapidly among psychiatrists, mental health professionals and school guidance counselors. By rewarding individuals with pedestrian vocabularies and exoteric strategies, Scrabble fostered a positive sense of accomplishment and success in those typically frustrated by the competitive climate of a burgeoning modern capitalist society.

Unfortunately Dr. Mortenhouse began observing Scrabble catalysed adverse effects of self-delusion and arrogance for some of his patients who began to believe their ability to play Scrabble—a purely clinical endeavor—indicated high intelligence. Soon, his patients' Scrabble skills actually caused increased depression and decreased motivation, thwarting the development of a healthy and realistic self-image. Some of his patients began measuring their self-worth in terms of Scrabble, grew viciously competitive and experienced difficulty functioning in the adult work world without the reductionism of therapeutic board games to feel confident among their peers. Many failed to differentiate between their ability to achieve “double” and “triple word scores” and the requisite analytic skills necessary for marketplace viability and social adaptability.  

Despite its initial promise and popularity Dr. Mortenhouse discontinued Scrabble usage among his patients in 1947. However, Scrabble had already spread into the private sector and was becoming a popular recreational activity among pseudo-intellectuals and self-loathing individuals. In 1972, Dr. Mortenhouse died of natural causes at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was 88 years old. Dr. Mortenhouse played Scrabble once in his life, averring that “due to the clinical and therapeutic nature of my invention, for a reasonable intelligent individual to engage Scrabble is to prescribe the healthy penicillin. The largest regret in my life—my only regret—is that my proudest moment was soon clouded by my saddest—the recreational adaptation of Scrabble following its deleterious effect on my patients and the larger population.”