Pursuits : Elizabeth Thomsen

Minds Made Feeble: The Myth and Legacy of the Kallikaks — By J. David Smith

I first read about the Kallikak family as a child, reading my parents’ copy of “You and Heredity” by Amram Scheinfeld. This was one of my favorite books, one I turned to often over many years, and the chapter about the Kallikak family was one of my favorites. I was interested in the science, but truly fascinated by the story. Reading it was a guilty pleasure, a deliciously racy soap opera, but with social, historical and scientific overtones. I especially loved the charts and diagrams, showing the unfortunate results of Martin Kallkak’s dalliance with the feeble-minded serving wench, and contrasted with the worthy and notable descendants that resulted from his later, lawful marriage to the “worthy Quakeress.” The first set of relatives were so horrible…literally so, since Martin’s son by the nameless girl was known as “the Old Horror.” And the second set, who, we are told, included signers of the Declaration of Indepence and founders of colleges, etc., seemed wonderfully high-class to me.

I could picture both branches of the family, based largely on images from the movies. I could picture the high-class young Kallikak women like something out of an old Katharine Hepburn or Bette Davis movie, bringing in their horses, holding their tennis rackets, laughing and flirting in that sophisticated way over cocktails in the drawing room. And those low-born Kallikaks:iving in shacks, dirty and ragged, with bad grammar and evil laughter. All living near each other, possibly passing each other on the street, neither side aware of the connection!

All of which is why I was so happy to find this book, with its re-examination of the Kallikak study and re-interpretation of its data and conclusions. Smith managed to track down someone who knew Deborah Kallikak, whose life in the Vineland training school was Henry Herbert Goddard’s starting point, and he determined the family’s true name, which he chooses not to divulge here. He is able to trace the family, both branches, back to the original Martin Kallikak, and what he finds is that although there were certainly differences in circumstances between the two branches, the split is by no means as dramatic as Goddard claimed. The “bad” Kallikaks were a mixed bunch, and Goddard’s easy retrospective diagnosis of “moron” on so many of them is certainly unwarranted.

In fact, Goddard’s belief that intelligence is so easily tested, and that low intelligence and moral deficiency are so closely connected seems ludicrous in retrospect. It became serious, however, when these ideas became the basis for modern eugenics and used as justification for forced sterilization, institutionalization and restrictive immigration practices in the United States, and much worse in Germany.

A Few Links

• The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness Henry Herbert Goddard (1913)– An online version of the book, including the illustrations
• Wikipedia: Kallikak Family — As of this writing, this is a pretty good overview of the Kallikak story

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