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Minds made feeble: The myth and legacy of the Kallikaks
Book by Smith, J.David
176 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 1, 2021
A fascinating exploration of the story behind the Kallikak Family, by Henry Goddard, a central supporting part of the concept of the hereditary nature of intelligence. This "study" which had a strong influence on the American eugenics movement, is taken apart by the author to show how the biases of the investigators allowed them to obtain the conclusions they wanted, thereby supporting legislative efforts to remove defectives from society. The impacts of the original book are sadly still being felt today.
February 14, 2025
Revisited this one recently. What does a 35-year-old book about another hundred-plus-year-old book have to tell us now? When it comes to human social engineering and the new world opening in the 21st Century, it has plenty to say with fair warning. The Kallikak Family study was the most notorious byproduct of the Eugenics movement. The author stresses that Dr. Henry H. Goddard, Director of the Vineland, New Jersey Institute for the Feebleminded - and his researcher, Elizabeth S. Kite - were not evil persons. Perhaps; but their class biases bore the evil fruit of social bigotry. 20th Century America and Europe bit deeply.
Under Kite's gossipy, unsubstantiated conjectures and Goddard's twisting of human lives to fit his preconceptions, a monumental injustice was done not only to the "bad Kallikaks," in particular the hapless abandoned child known as Deborah Kallikak. This study was important to pro-Nazi German doctors in creating the "science" of "race hygiene," instrumental in gassing the "feebleminded" of the Third Reich and opening the door to Final Solutions across the board. Goddard and Kite would deeply resent the connection: Kite was a Quaker, and editor of Mahatma Gandhi's works in the '20s; their prime sponsor was a Jewish philanthropist who also founded the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society. Nevertheless, global genocide was built on homey foundations in the New Jersey Pine Barrens of 1910.
This book's author traces the then-living relatives of Deborah Kallikak and finds them to be ordinary working-class people, intelligent for all their lack of opportunity and formal education, with younger grandchildren excelling academically and artistically. One has only to look at the "homework" of Deborah herself to see an intelligent young woman categorized and confined under false pretenses. Fortunately her descendants broke free of the shackles Dr. Goddard had planned for them. This should give pause to those trying to revive genetic bases for human intelligence as measured by "life success." Such success is possible only in an open society. The Eugenics Movement, and Goddard's book, was designed to permanently close society to the "lower orders", by reinventing aristocratic concepts of "blood will tell." This deceitful pseudo-science was specifically designed to counter the rise of social democracy in the 20th century, with the results given above.
In an update to this review, let me add Smith's own analysis of the long-term "Kallikak Effect": "The public found in this book what it wanted to believe. Politicians, policy makers, and the otherwise powerful found evidence . . . that their disregard for the rights of the weak was consistent with the natural order of life and in the best interests of the nation. . . [T]he making of a social myth [illustrates] how lives were restricted, damaged, and even destroyed. . . The names, the religion, and the race may vary, but the Kallikaks are still being hunted, found, and blamed for the ills of society."
Not only a warning from history, but an ill omen for the future, as public policy continues its retrograde trend with those in power. Perhaps the most insidious irony is that this very myth informs our current regime, its popular leadership, and the perceptions of both: as if the rise of MAGA is a direct mockery of the enlightened policy and human potential pled for in this book.
Under Kite's gossipy, unsubstantiated conjectures and Goddard's twisting of human lives to fit his preconceptions, a monumental injustice was done not only to the "bad Kallikaks," in particular the hapless abandoned child known as Deborah Kallikak. This study was important to pro-Nazi German doctors in creating the "science" of "race hygiene," instrumental in gassing the "feebleminded" of the Third Reich and opening the door to Final Solutions across the board. Goddard and Kite would deeply resent the connection: Kite was a Quaker, and editor of Mahatma Gandhi's works in the '20s; their prime sponsor was a Jewish philanthropist who also founded the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society. Nevertheless, global genocide was built on homey foundations in the New Jersey Pine Barrens of 1910.
This book's author traces the then-living relatives of Deborah Kallikak and finds them to be ordinary working-class people, intelligent for all their lack of opportunity and formal education, with younger grandchildren excelling academically and artistically. One has only to look at the "homework" of Deborah herself to see an intelligent young woman categorized and confined under false pretenses. Fortunately her descendants broke free of the shackles Dr. Goddard had planned for them. This should give pause to those trying to revive genetic bases for human intelligence as measured by "life success." Such success is possible only in an open society. The Eugenics Movement, and Goddard's book, was designed to permanently close society to the "lower orders", by reinventing aristocratic concepts of "blood will tell." This deceitful pseudo-science was specifically designed to counter the rise of social democracy in the 20th century, with the results given above.
In an update to this review, let me add Smith's own analysis of the long-term "Kallikak Effect": "The public found in this book what it wanted to believe. Politicians, policy makers, and the otherwise powerful found evidence . . . that their disregard for the rights of the weak was consistent with the natural order of life and in the best interests of the nation. . . [T]he making of a social myth [illustrates] how lives were restricted, damaged, and even destroyed. . . The names, the religion, and the race may vary, but the Kallikaks are still being hunted, found, and blamed for the ills of society."
Not only a warning from history, but an ill omen for the future, as public policy continues its retrograde trend with those in power. Perhaps the most insidious irony is that this very myth informs our current regime, its popular leadership, and the perceptions of both: as if the rise of MAGA is a direct mockery of the enlightened policy and human potential pled for in this book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews