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Peter Neubauer's
Peter Neubauer was an Austrian-born American child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. A Jewish man, he escaped Austria during the Nazi occupation and emigrated to New York in 1941.
Neubauer is most well known for his controversial study on separated twins and triplets, conducted over two decades in the 1960s and 70s. Neubauer died in 2008 without ever publishing the findings of the study. These records have been sealed at Yale university until 2065.
PURPOSE
PURPOSE
The purpose of the study was to compare the development of separated sets of twins and triplets to explore one of psychology’s most pressing questions — that of nature versus nurture, or whether human behavior is more affected by environment or genetics.
There are still questions over whether the siblings were separated explicitly for the purpose of the study, or if this was just the policy of the adoption agency at the time on the advice of consulting psychiatrist Viola Bernard.
However, some aspects of the placements seem to have been driven specifically by study design, including the selection of families based on differing socioeconomic status. In addition, at least some of the birth mothers had been diagnosed with mental illness. These features may have been relevant to investigating the relative effects of the status of adoptive families on “nurture” and maternal health history on “nature.”
method
method
The study involved at least eight twins and a set of triplets who had been separated at birth at the New York City adoption agency Louise Wise Services. Researchers did not obtain the consent of participants or their adoptive families.
Home visits and child testing were conducted for years following the placements. The researchers took notes, photographs and video footage of the children performing various tasks and tests. Families were told that these were part of routine monitoring after adoption.
They also failed to inform families that their child had been separated from a twin during the adoption process or in their later observation of the children.
FINDINGS
FINDINGS
While some case study evidence is mentioned in Neubauer's publication Nature's Thumbprint: The New Genetics of Personality, his full research findings were never formally published. It is unclear why. Families and participants of the study were unaware of their involvement, or even the existence of their siblings, until much later in life - as was the case with separated triplets Eddy Galland, Robert Shafran and David Kellman.
In recent years some of the participants have received partial records of the findings of their own studies, but these are incomplete and have been heavily redacted.
ISSUES
ISSUES
According to the two documentaries, many of the separated children dealt with mental health issues in adolescence and as adults. Director of “The Twinning Reaction” Lori Shinseki told ABC’s 20/20 that of the at least 15 children separated after birth by Louise Wise and Neubauer, three have committed suicide. Eddy Galland, whose fellow triplet brothers David Kellman and Robert Shafran are the protagonists of “Three Identical Strangers,” committed suicide in 1995.
Barron Lerner of The Washington Post writes:
"No wonder the two surviving triplets who appear in “Three Identical Strangers” are furious. It is inconceivable to them that physicians, social workers and adoption specialists knowingly deprived them of interactions with their siblings for almost 20 years. Indeed, after the triplets inadvertently discovered one another in 1980, they were practically inseparable, desperately trying to make up for lost time.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, the brothers themselves have referenced the history of unethical experimentation, even comparing the Neubauer study to Nazi medical projects.
What is interesting is to ask why well-meaning people like Neubauer and Bernard — who, after all, were fierce child advocates — did what they did...
The pursuit of scientific knowledge — and the attendant fame that new discoveries may bring — can blind investigators to the harm that they are causing their subjects. Moreover, these factors can lead scientists to lie and deceive to keep their research projects going and obtain results. These types of perils still exist, despite new ethical guidelines we now embrace."
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