Those readers of the behavioral sciences literature who long to discover a study which will provide that blend of objective cultural anthropologic data and psychodynamic interpretation which has been so elusive will not, in my opinion, find that longing fulfilled by Dr. Bettelheim's book about child-rearing in an Israeli kibbutz.
A grant from the New World Foundation in the spring of 1964 enabled Dr. Bettelheim to spend seven weeks studying communal rearing in the Israeli kibbutz. He had long been interested in this subject and dissatisfied with the literature on it, but while he welcomes the opportunity to make a firsthand study he warns the reader at the outset that, "What follows is ... a very personal, impressionistic report, derived from my study of one kibbutz mainly. . . . It is as objective a review as was possible to this particular observer, who was often a participant-observer as well."