Memories of the Child Development Center Study of Adopted Monozygotic Twins Reared Apart: an Unfulfilled Promise

NEWS, VIEWS AND COMMENTS his month’s News, Views and Comments column differs from those that have appeared in previous issues. The first of the com- Tpanion papers presented here offers the first in-depth historical overview of Dr. Peter Neubauer’s controversial study of infant identical twins separated at birth, launched in the 1950s. The author, Dr. Lawrence Perlman, was a research assistant on the project while earning his doctoral degree in clinical psychology from New York University. His paper is followed by my own critical appraisal of issues raised by that study, some of which are still timely today. Readers are invited to forward their comments to me ([email protected]) for possible consideration in future columns of Twin Research and Human Genetics. Memories of the Child Development Center Study of Adopted Monozygotic Twins Reared Apart: An Unfulfilled Promise Lawrence M. Perlman Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, United States of America there being a therapeutic nursery, ages, socioeconomic status, educa- Then modeled on Margaret Mahler’s facility tional level and religion, and older The year was 1968. I was a 24-year- on the Upper West Side, and several siblings’ gender and age. The siblings old doctoral student in clinical ongoing research projects. One had also been adopted through the psychology at New York University of them was a study of adopted iden- Louise Wise agency, so the families (NYU), fresh out of my internship tical twins, separated at birth and were well-known return customers. at the Veterans Administration reared apart. This time, the parents were told that Outpatient Department in Brooklyn. The twin study had been going on they and their children were part of A fellow student told me about a for several years by the time I arrived. an ongoing study of child develop- part-time research position that was It was the brainchild of Peter B. ment that would require annual home available at the Jewish Board of Neubauer, a prominent child psychia- visits and psychological testing. They Guardians (JBG), assisting in a study trist who was the director of CDC. were never informed of the twinship of adopted twins reared apart. It A psychiatric consultant named Viola status of their new adoptee. sounded like a great opportunity to Bernard, who I never met, was also a (There may have been exceptions find a dissertation topic and finish central figure. Neubauer was a psy- to the family selection practice. In the my PhD. Many of my colleagues choanalyst, as were most clinicians only published report of the study, had clinical positions, but were stuck in New York in those days. He was Abrams [1986] indicated that the in the ‘all-but-dissertation limbo’. a busy man, who seemed to have adoptive parents of one female twin I jumped at the chance to get my little day-to-day input into the had a biological son, and that her research started. research. My boss, a psychologist twin was adopted by a family with JBG had its main office on the named Nancy Edwards, was the two children, a son and a daughter. In upper floors of a building at 120 West project director. She was a young addition, these two families differed 57th Street, in an upscale neighbor- graduate of Columbia University with somewhat in socioeconomic level.) hood down the block from Carnegie a background in child development, Suppression of the twinship infor- Hall. It had satellite clinics and resi- who was also in psychoanalytic train- mation is a crucial issue that has dential treatment centers throughout ing in NYU’s postdoctoral program. become a point of contention with the city. JBG was known as a good I do not recall whether there were any regard to the ethics of the research. In place to get clinical training in child other personnel on the research team. fact, it was one of the things that Dr. therapy, even though the pay was The study was unique. Louise Nancy Segal asked me about when we poor. The Child Development Center Wise Services, a well-known Jewish (CDC) was housed in the main office. adoption agency, was separating Address for correspondence: Lawrence It was a research enterprise that also infant identical co-twins and placing Perlman, PhD, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare provided therapeutic services for them in carefully selected families that System, 2215 Fuller Rd. (116C), Ann Arbor, preschoolers and their parents. I recall were matched according to parents’ MI 48105, USA. E-mail:[email protected] Twin Research and Human Genetics Volume 8 Number 3 pp. 271–281 271 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.33.19, on 24 Sep 2021 at 13:15:40, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1375/twin.8.3.271 Lawrence Perlman and Nancy L. Segal met in December 2004. How could which could have implications Dr. Segal commented that it this information have been kept from regarding the children’s genetic would not have been such a hard the parents? Weren’t they entitled to endowments, for example, the task to make those calculations. Now know that their children were twins? youngsters might be impulsive or it is not, but in 1968 there were no Of course, a major premise of the overly active. desktop computers, no canned statis- research was that they not know. The Much to my dismay, I soon dis- tical programs. We had to compute twin study staff believed that a weak- covered that the research, while well t tests and other statistical analyses on ness of prior studies on twins reared conducted, was not well organized. cumbersome calculating machines. To apart was the twins’ and parents’ Data had been collected for several use an enormous IBM computer for knowledge that there was an identical years, but no-one had begun to prop- data analysis meant getting special sibling out there somewhere. It was erly compile and analyze it. Dr. training, hiring a consultant, having assumed that such knowledge could Neubauer was a remote figure with handwritten data converted to punch affect the handling of the child by the whom I seldom interacted. (Abrams cards, and running a program parents, as well as the child’s own [1986] reported that there were that was certain to fail the first sense of self. This study intended to weekly staff meetings. If so, they may few times. Without funds to hire cler- eliminate such confounding variables. have occurred on a day that I did not ical workers, one had to spend The principal virtue of the study work at CDC.) Neubauer was a child hours recording and compiling data was that it was prospective and psychiatrist and respected clinician, by hand. longitudinal. We had the unique but was unfamiliar with research As for the ethics of the research, opportunity to build on an experi- design. My boss, Nancy Edwards, did I do not recall a single discussion of ment of nature: to follow two not seem to be especially invested in whether or not it was inappropriate to individuals with identical genetic the research. It soon became apparent conceal the knowledge of twinship makeups from birth throughout their that, unassisted, I would need to carve from the families. Again, it is impor- developmental years. We would be out my dissertation research from this tant to put oneself back in the 1960s. able to study their families, as well, in mass of data. Informed consent for research sub- order to focus on differences in par- jects was not a required practice. I set to work learning about twins. enting styles that might affect their Of course, the dictum to respect sub- I became familiar with gestation, psychological characteristics. jects and not do psychological damage birth, infant testing, and other child All prior research on twins reared was very much a part of our ethos. development topics that were missing apart had consisted of retrospective No one suspected that we were doing from my graduate studies. I had studies of pairs that were reunited otherwise. Our principal responsibil- soon compiled a comprehensive later in life. We believed that many ity was to maintain confidentiality bibliography on twins reared apart had discovered one another by virtue about the twins and their families. and had read all the extant studies. of institutionalization or problems Adoption records were sealed and I clarified the research questions with the law, introducing sampling inviolable. Parents who adopted babies errors from which our study was and identified some of the did not expect to learn anything immune. (However, later research crucial variables. about the infant’s biological mother demonstrated that most reunited At that point, it became clear to or father. In fact, most had no interest twins had not met because of deviant me that one of the most essential in being burdened by that knowledge. behaviors.) Our data were much pieces of data had never been Environmental influences on develop- richer and more representative addressed, namely proof of the twins’ ment were assumed to be paramount. because we were observing the twins monozygosity. While we had lots of It was accepted that these children (and their families) from infancy. information on the infants from their would have better lives than could Since we had controlled for key differ- moment of birth, such as Apgar have been possible with their gener- ences in the families’ environments, scores, it was often not possible to ally unwed, teenage parents. Young, we would be able to tease out subtle determine if there had been one or pregnant women were frequently sent differences in the twins’ personalities two placentae.

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