J. David Smith

Conjoined twins born before the advent of surgical separation techniques have long been of special interest to scientists. Sharing an identical genetic make-up and an identical environment, these twins have provided a unique opportunity for the study of innate and cultural determinants on the individual. Psychological Profiles of Conjoined Twins probes the striking differences in personality, ability, and interests between such twins--and consequently reexamines the prevailing assumptions in current psychological research. Smith's thoroughly documented book questions the pervasive view that human characteristics may be reduced to a simple ratio of heredity and environment. He investigataes the lives of the first recorded conjoined twins, Chang and Eng, and the lives of other, lesser known conjoined twins. The author also presents an intriguing study of the representation of conjoined twins in literature. The final chapters discuss vital philosophical and scientific questions raised by the lives of such twins, with particular emphasis on the over-simplification of traditional heredity/environment approaches.

Heredity, Environment, and Identity

Psychological Profiles of Conjoined Twins

This book tells the life story of John Lovelace, a 62-year old mentally retarded man. Tracing his life in and out of institutions, it chronicles the struggle of a socially imperfect person to find ways to become connected to the society which has been reluctant to grant him the right of participation.By telling the personal story of this one real person, the author hopes to inspire readers in training to work in settings where they will encounter children and adults with mental retardation. As they develop a deeper understanding of what it is like to go through life as a mentally retarded person, readers will feel an enhanced sensitivity and compassion that will help them in their day-to-day dealings with disabled people and will increase their commitment to developing humane, compassionate systems and policies.

Mental Retardation in and Out of Institutions

Pieces of Purgatory

Michael L. Wehmeyer

At the vortex of the American eugenics tragedy was the seemingly sordid tale of a "degenerate" family from rural New Jersey.Published in 1912, The Kallikak Family was a pseudoscientific treatise describing generations of illiterate, poor, and purportedly immoral Kallikak family members who were chronically unemployed, "feebleminded," criminal, and, in general, perceived asthreats to "racial hygiene." Psychologist Henry Herbert Goddard invented the pseudonym "Kallikak"-from the Greek words Kallos (beauty) and Kakos (bad)-to illustrate the eugenic belief in the role of nature and heredity as unalterable forces leading to degeneracy, and his tale of the contrasting fates of the disparate Kallikak ancestral lines reigned for decades as seemingly conclusive proof of the hereditary nature of intelligence, feeblemindedness, criminal behavior, and degeneracy. The starting point for Goddard's moral tale was "Deborah Kallikak," an inmate at his institution for the feebleminded. Incredibly, as revealed in detail for the first time in Good Blood, Bad Blood: Science, Nature, and the Myth of the Kallikaks, Goddard was completely wrong. No degenerate line descended from the purported Kallikak progenitor. There were only people-some of whom had resources and access to education, others of whom were poor, uneducated, and cast into the cauldron that was urban America at the dawn of the Industrial Age. The pseudonymous "Deborah Kallikak" became the poster child for societal fears regarding immigration, heredity, and racial integration, the flames of which were fanned by a select group of well-educated, upper class, American scientists marching under the banner of the new "science" of eugenics. In the 100 years since publication of The Kallikak Family, the woman Goddard called "Deborah" has remained in the shadows of history, known only by the name forced upon her. Using new source material, Good Blood, Bad Blood tells her story in its entirety-in dram

J. David Smith

About

Books

Join the club