Dr. Preston Grind spent his childhood as part of an
experiment his child psychologist parents imposed on him. Calling it the “Constant Friction Method,”
his otherwise loving parents were determined to prepare him better for life by not
sugar-coating the reality of the world.
Instead of protecting him from unpleasantness, they amplified it to help
him understand the “constant friction” of living. For example, instead of making him
comfortable while sleeping, they would randomly remove him from his crib and
put him on the cold floor. When he was learning to crawl, they attached weights
to his ankles to make it more difficult.
Needless to say, Dr. Grind, who followed them into psychology as an
adult, was more than a little messed up by this upbringing. His response was to develop his own theory of
childrearing as set out in “The Artificial Village,” the best-selling book he
wrote describing a more or less communal living situation where children would
be raised by all the adults around them.
The book catches the eye of a wealthy donor who provides the funding for “The Infinite Family”
project. Ten couples about to have their first child
are recruited, carefully screened, invited to join, and the theory is put into
practice. A complex with separate homes,
communal dining and activity areas, and a dormitory for the children is built. One catch, the couples, who
are required to sign on for a ten year stint, must not have any more children during
this period, and none of the babies will learn which of the couples their birth
parents are until they are five. The
only non-couple is single mother, Izzy, a brilliant high school student with
her own troubled background, who has become pregnant by her art teacher her
senior year. With him permanently out of
the picture, and her father an alcoholic who never got over the death of Izzy’s
agoraphobic mother, Izzy sees participation in this experiment as a lifeline. Needless to say, there are snakes in this
perfect little world. 336 pp.
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