Kellogg's Race Betterment Foundation

Domain XVI · Historical, discredited & harmful · John Harvey Kellogg · 1906 · Battle Creek, Michigan

What it is

Listed for history and safety. The Race Betterment Foundation promoted eugenics, a movement that fed compulsory sterilisation and racial segregation. Nothing here is recommended or taught as practice. This guide covers the psychotherapist's own work: historical literacy, recognising the legacy, and…

Format

• First National Conference on Race Betterment, Battle Creek, 8–12 January 1914. The proceedings run to 690 pages (Gage Printing Company, 1914). Sections cover statistical studies, individual hygiene, alcohol and tobacco, child life, 'sex questions', school, city and state hygiene, 'eugenics and…
• Phases of the psychotherapist's work. Session number and length follow the client's needs and the setting.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Third conference and the Eugenics Registry, 1928. The Foundation formed a Eugenics Registry for family biological records. Any formal tie between this registry and the Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor.
• The Race Betterment Foundation was an organisation, not a therapy. It was set up in Battle Creek, Michigan, by John Harvey Kellogg, the physician who ran the Battle Creek Sanitarium (see 043 Kellogg's Battle Creek Sanitarium regime). Most sources give 1906 as the founding year; the University of Vermont Michigan page gives 1911. It sponsored National Conferences on Race Betterment in 1914, 1915 and 1928, and in 1928…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• a return of distress when work ends. Working: the client has supports and a plan.
• delayed care for serious conditions. Working: the client takes part in care decisions.
• pathologising the family. Working: the client shows more choice in how they relate to the history.
• retaliation, and colluding silence. Working: the client's rights are protected and practice changes.
• guilt that centres the therapist. Working: the client experiences honesty and repair in the relationship.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.