The Kallikak Family

The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness was a 1912 book by the American psychologist and eugenicist Henry H. Goddard, dedicated to his patron Samuel Simeon Fels.

The book begins by discussing the case of "Deborah Kallikak" (real name Emma Wolverton, 1889–1978),[3] a woman in Goddard's institution, the New Jersey Home for the Education and Care of Feebleminded Children (now Vineland Training School).

On the "normal" side of the Kallikak family tree, the children Martin had with his wife and their descendants all ended up prosperous, intelligent, and morally upstanding.

Goddard concluded from this that intelligence, sanity, and morality were hereditary, and every effort should be undertaken to keep the 'feeble-minded' from procreating, with the overall goal of potentially ending 'feeble-mindedness' and its accompanying traits.

The "bad" side of the Kallikak family included poor farmers but also school teachers, an Army Air Corps pilot, and a bank treasurer.

[7] Furthermore, prenatal alcohol exposure may also damage the central nervous system, which can result in impaired cognitive and behavioral functioning similar to that described by Goddard.

The paleontologist and science writer Stephen Jay Gould advanced the view that Goddard—or someone working with him—had retouched the photographs used in his book in order to make the "bad" Kallikaks appear more menacing.

In older editions of the books, Gould said, it has become clearly evident that someone had drawn in darker, "crazier" looking eyes and menacing faces on the children and adults in the pictures.

The term "Kallikak" became, along with "Jukes" and "Nams" (other case studies of similar natures), a cultural shorthand for the rural poor in the Southern and Northeastern United States.

Goddard's book traced the genealogy of "Deborah Kallikak", a woman in his institution.
Goddard's Kallikak pedigree
A set of Kallikak children on the "feeble-minded" side of the family
Two Kallikaks. It is possible that the boy was born with Down Syndrome , a former name of the syndrome being mongolism.
A detail of faces from the book— Stephen Jay Gould alleged that Goddard had doctored them to make them look more sinister.
A caricature of the Kallikak Family from a 1950s psychology textbook. Modern research indicates that there is nothing accurate about the descriptions offered here. [ 3 ]