Letters to the Editor
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..brother...
..happier marriages eh? Depends on how you define happiness.
Human beings who have not evolved much pschologically or emotionally probably function fairly well in such an arrangement. But that's the only kind of human who could. If the alternative is family chaos (see any book on family therapy for a definition--similar to chaotic personality disorder, but involving two or more parties in a nuclear family), this arrangement would be regarded as a big improvement, appalling as that may be.
This story reminded me of a vivid tableau in the PBS documentary *The Mormons.* One of the "happy Mormon families" profiled in the show is sitting around a table praying. There are seven children, and the parents. All I could think was "how many undiscussibles are there in this family? The list would be longer than the Old Testament." You could tell. There's a lot of stuff that would just not exist for these people. And the pressure of all that stuff makes for problems. Sooner, or later.
It's a life. But not much of one, ultimately.