The Dynamics of Adoption: Social and Personal Perspectives

Documenting experiences representative of all those involved in the adoption process - adoptee, adoptive and birth parent and professional, and informed by psychoanalytic and social and cultural theory perspectives, this important addition to the literature on adoption highlights a new dimension in social policy, welfare work and personal accounts in this field. The Dynamics of Adoption shows that fantasy and emotion are integral parts of the experience and affect the nature of thought itself. Applying this to the complexity of the adoption experience, it combines personal accounts with chapters by professionals. The personal accounts present detailed reflection on the feelings expressed, shedding new light on the problems of loss, feelings of abandonment and the dynamics of attachment. Using a more conceptual and clinical framework the viewpoints of the professionals are also used to explore the feelings and fantasies of the families involved producing new insight into the vexed dynamics involved in adoption. This book will enable practitioners, policy makers and families themselves to appreciate the many layers of the difficult process of adoption, and to apply this understanding creatively to their own decisions and experiences.

Table of Contents:
1. Narrative and fantasy in adoption: towards a different theoretical understanding, Amal Treacher, Psychosocial Studies, University of East London. 2. The adoption narrative - stories that we tell and those that we can't, John Simmons, Social Work Department, Goldsmiths College, University of London. 3.The Jewish kindertransport from Germany to England, 1938-39, Rebekka Gopfert, Becks Publishing House, Germany. 4. Infertility and the 'bureaucratic' child, some thoughts on the treatment of two adopted patients Julian Lousada, Tavistock Clinic. 5. The adoption experience from a social worker's point of view Barbara Prynn 6. Identity-Formation and the adopted person revisited John Triseolitis, Department of Social Work, University of Edinburgh. 7. The dynamics of projection in trans-racial adoption Barry Richards. 8. Race, ethnicity and transracial adoption. Ravinder Barn, Royal Holloway College, Univeristy of London. 9. Towards the reality of reunion: an adoptive mother's journey through the fantasies and realities in adoption and birth mother reunion Alison Benton. 10. Lesbian and Gay parents as foster carers and adotpive parents Damian McCann, Principal Family Therapist, Barnet Health Care Trust and Fiona Tasker, Department of Psychology, Birkbeck College. 11. Pregnant bodies and rational parenthood Sallie Greenwood, The Waikato Polytechnic, New Zealand. 12. Changing practice in adoption: experiences and lessons from East Sussex Barry Luckock., School of Cultural and Community Studies, University of Sussex. 13. Clinical work with Adults who have been adopted Rose Golberg, Tavistock Clinic. 14. Triangles of adoption - the geometry of complexity, Ilan Katz, Practice Development Unit, NSPCC. With poems by Margot Henderson. Index.