CHILDREN IN KIBBUTZIM: THIRTEEN YEARS AFTER*

Abstract
The social system of the kibbutz is briefly described, especially as it affects the young child. Attention is paid to the distribution of parental functions between mother, nurse and father, and the conceptual problems involved in the analysis of this situation. The aspirations of the kibbutz movement for the outcome of "collective education" and the misgivings of various Western commentators are confronted with clinical reports by 2 psychiatrists working with kibbutz children of the incidence and type of symptoms and psycho-pathology found in this populations; and the findings of several comparative studies of children from the kibbutz and from villages with the family structure traditional in Western societies.