Synergistic Scheme of Things

Del Mar, Calif., 18 miles north of San Diego, is a pleasant and quiet resort town with a population of 3,000. But these days some of the lively types taking advantage of the small-town atmosphere and the balmy climate have more on their minds than surfing and suntans. They are magazine editors--many in their mid-20s--holding story conferences for two new magazines, Psychology Today and Careers Today. Says Nicolas H. Charney, 27, who founded both of them: "It's a very synergistic environment."

To launch his venture, Charney formed a corporation in January 1967, after receiving a Ph. D. in biopsychology from the University of Chicago. "About all I knew," he says, "was that I want ed to put out a magazine, a sort of Scientific American of the social sciences. There is psychology behind all acts--eating, going to bed, and so on. People are curious about these things."

Ponderous Talk. He raised $250,000 from friends and friends of friends. Within four months he and a staff of five sent the first issue of his monthly Psychology Today to the newsstands.

From the start, Charney decided that the way to talk about psychology was to let specialists do the talking. Articles ranged from "The Psychopharmacological Revolution" to "Civilization and Its Malcontents," which argued that the neurotic is deficient in his socialization, not excessive, as Freud believed. M.I.T. Linguist Noam Chomsky has dealt with "Language and the Mind," and others have presented conclusions of research projects in areas ranging from "Fantasy Differences in Men and Women" to "Political Attitudes in Children." The current issue takes on the question of "Does the Law Work for You?" with contributors grappling with the problems of "The Psychiatrist and the Legal Process" and the perceptions of witnesses in court. "We discovered that the more punitive people in each of our groups had better recall than the less punitive," writes the author, who disputes the idea that the adversary system "can winnow out the truth."

The authority of the articles is too often obscured by ponderous writing. Aimed at an unspecialized audience, the magazine needs more translation by competent, middleman journalists. Mary Harrington Hall, a former science writer who was one of the first staffers hired by Charney, comes closest. But even when she tries to inject lightness and broader explanation into her tape-recorded interviews with the likes of Existentialist-Psychotherapist Rollo May and Harvard Behaviorist B. F. Skinner, the transcribed result more often than not sounds like interruptions.

Visually, the magazine can hardly be faulted. The art and photography is rich with color and imagination, providing a provocative--almost psychedelic--accompaniment to the text. In the pre-election issue, for example, television's importance in a campaign year was illustrated by a cover photo showing a woman thrusting her baby forward to be kissed by a politician. Ignoring the infant, the politician is pressing his lips to the lens of a nearby television camera.

Mr. Chips. Psychology Today was only Charney's first step. For the second, Careers Today, Management

Consultant Peter Drucker was hired as adviser and contributor. Editor is T (for nothing) George Harris, 43, a former Look senior editor and TIME correspondent, whose freewheeling enthusiasm has made him a sort of Mr. Chips to his writers. (The oldest is 27.)

"We're not a want-ad magazine for jobs," says Harris, who has put out two issues so far. "We'll tell people what's going on so they'll have a chance to act." Using Psychology's art style, the magazine is smashing to look at, but has yet to offer many articles over which today's college kids are apt to freak out. "Big Government Wants You" did not go far beyond information available in civil service brochures. "Activists, Radicals and Yippies" offered little analysis that had not already been provided aplenty elsewhere in the press.

On the Beach. The payroll is now up to 140 people and the corporation has spread, amoeba-like, into any available office space in tiny Del Mar. The staffers seem positively euphoric about their mission and a working atmosphere that calls for a new definition of the Organization Man. "The whole place is pretty freed up," says Craig Vetter, 26, a Careers writer. Formal hours are so casual as to be nonexistent, pants and bikinis are the girls' thing, and the men are dressed up when they don't go barefoot or wear sneakers. Parties are so frequent that their ends and beginnings almost overlap.

Even older staffers are caught up in the mood. Clarence Olson, 41, has quit his job as assistant editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Sunday magazine to become an assistant managing editor of Careers. "I walk to work, I camp in the house, I sleep on an air mattress," he says. "I'll just lie on the beach and maybe even buy a dune buggy."

The staff's enthusiasm and optimism seem justified, at least for now. Despite their flaws, the magazines--particularly

Psychology Today--are based on the sound idea of leading general readers through fascinating new fields of specialization. Charney is backing them with an intensive and well-financed promotion campaign. The charter issue of Careers last September was mailed free to all Psychology subscribers. Four million letters were sent to people on a well-culled mailing list, and 100 full-page ads have run in national publications.

John Veronis, 40, former senior vice president of Curtis Publishing and now a partner in the company (which has the pretentious title of Communications Research Machines), has persuaded 40 investors to put up $10 million. Already, Psychology Today claims a paid circulation of 350,000 (yearly rate: $10), which puts it in a category with Harper's and Atlantic. Careers claims 250,000.

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