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Today's reexamination of the poverty programs carried on by federal, state, and municipal governments will be benefited by an understanding of the psychology of multiproblem families. An important obstacle to the success of these programs is the insuppressible number of children, both legitimate and illegitimate, born to these families. Understanding the psychological meaning of pregnancy in the mothers is essential in designing enlightened birth control programs.
In this paper, I shall review my investigations of the phenomenon of multiple pregnancies in these families. The study of the psychopathology of multiproblem individuals and families has been an ongoing research that I began during my seven and a half years as Psychiatric Consultant for the Special Counseling Program of the Department of Welfare, New York City, and have been continuing as Consultant to the Community Services Society of New York City and as Assistant Attending Psychiatrist at the Mount Sinai Hospital of New York (Perman, 1963).
These families, as a rule, have been receiving public assistance for more than a generation. Although some moved to New York from the South or from Puerto Rico, many are natives of this city. They are of various races and religions. Some have an uninterrupted history as recipients of public welfare assistance; few have been able to be self-supporting for more than a few months.
Frequently, the families are crowded into deplorable housing. Their phobic organization of life is an important determinant in their social isolation and is one of the reasons for their clinging to their single room or crowded dwelling (1966). The children are
exposed to the polymorphic perverse activities of the adults and soon begin to imitate them. As puberty and adolescence make child-bearing possible, the adolescent process which should be preparing them for adulthood is interrupted abruptly and complicated by parenthood. The cycle is then continued for another generation. It is rare to f