Children in Kibbutzim: thirteen years after

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 ith (a) clinical reports by two psychiatrists working with kibbutz children of the incidence and type of symptoms and psychopathology found in this population; (b) the findings of several comparative studies of children from the kibbutz and from villages with the family structure traditional in Western societies.