The Genain Quadruplets were identical quads who all had schizophrenia. It was the Freudian era and the shrinks at NIMH had a fine old time discussing whether this meant schizophrenia was partly genetic—although even then, a few brave souls pointed out that “If you were trapped with that guy [their dad] you’d go crazy too.” NIMH did get them away from their parents, in time for all but the sickest one to improve. 20 years ago I had little trouble getting hold of their biography, The Genain Quadruplets by David Rosenthal. There may still be surviving copies even though there’s not much left of Freudianism. It’s not available on Kindle. Rosenthal wrote his biography in the ‘60’s so it’s likely still in copyright in the U.S, therefore I didn’t bother to look to see if it’s on Gutenberg or a similar site.

40 or 50 years ago, unfrocked Jesuit Malachi Martin predicted Freudianism would be debunked, and darned if he wasn’t right!

—Lady Cutekitten