Kallikak Family

About this book

The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness, written by famous American psychologist and eugenicist Henry H. Goddard, is a famous but controversial extended case study following the Kallikak family (a pseudonym from the Greek words Kallos "beauty" and Kakos "bad") for the inheritance of "feeble-mindedness," a general category referring to a variety of mental disabilities including mental disabilities, learning disabilities, and mental illness. Goddard concluded that a variety of mental traits were hereditary and society should limit reproduction by people possessing these traits, which in turn helped to spur on the destructive eugenics movement, especially in the United States. Note: For the charts printed in Chapter II and referred to throughout the text, please refer to a visual copy of the book. - Summary by Mary Kay and Wikipedia