i Preface<br > This book is written for children. I hope it will help reduce the misery in<br > their lives; and I hope some parents， because they have read it， will be able<br > to save themselves some suffering by avoiding some mistakes with their<br > children， Some may be made aware that usually we do not know what we<br > are doing to them.<br > In z948， in a paper entitled "Common Problems of Research in Anthro-<br > pology and Psychiatry，"* I said that since lack of scientific knowled e<br > family life was an obstacle to understandi g of<br > 11~ ~，lOuonal Illness， researchers<br > should live for a short time with families of the emotionally ill. The idea<br > was， as might have been expected， ignored by "the profession." Years later，<br > i ~ however， Bruno Bettelheim made it possible for me to do the work with the<br > aid of Ford Foundation funds he had at his disposal. I am grateful for his<br > help， his insight and his confidence in me. I am grateful also for the oppor-<br > tunity to learn from him and his associate~.<br > The first product of my studies of the families of psychotic children was<br > a monograph entitled "L Observation naturaliste des famflles d enfants<br > i i~ Psychotiques，" published in Paris in r96Lt In r963 I published "The Port-<br > man Family" and "The Ross Family" in my Culture Against Man.~<br > This book is not only a study of pathways to madness but also， indirectly，<br > ~i~. an account of some changes in myself， as the years passed between "L Ob-<br > L: ~: servatlon naturaliste . . " and completion of "The Keen Family，" which<br > is the final study in this volume， Meanwhile the world changed too--~the<br > :: ，~nse of doom of helplessness， was not quite as strong in the world when<br > ~ " l published my first study as it is now--and as the world crisis deepened<br > :~"， ~ny work was affected I think my own understanding was improved.<br > : About half this book was written during my tenure as a fellow of the<br > Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences， and I am most<br > grateful to its director Ralph Tylor， a sensitive man who knows how to say<br > ~ :!:"Y~" and to its staff. I also want to thank Washington University for the<br > ~" "year off. I wish I could thank by name the organizations that introduced<br > ~:7 ~， me to the famfiles discussed here， but to do so would violate privacy.<br > ?:::- t have discussed every page of this book with my wife， and It is likely<br > i~hat some of its weaknesses might have been eliminated had I accepted<br > v，" of her suggestions. I am also grateful to Berenice Hoffman for superb<br >j ! ? odltorlal work， I want to thank Barbara Willson for her patient and serupu-<br > to~ oopy~lVmg.<br > J ar~..~.~ Iou.，~iof O~thop~h~at~， VoL xvm， pp. 69S-7os.<br > . an the Journa! La I ~.ychtatrte de l Enfant.<br > Vintage Books; Now York. Random House.<br >i<br >