Understanding Adoption: Clinical Work with Adults, Children, and Parents

by Kathleen Hushion (Editor), Susan B. Sherman (Editor), Diana Siskind (Editor), Christopher Bonovitz (Contribution by), Jerrold Brandell (Contribution by)

Overview

Adoption is a transformational process bringing parenthood to those who long for but cannot bear children and giving stranded children home, family, and their place in the world. But every adoption is preceded and followed by its story and when these stories are told in the offices of psychotherapists we begin to understand the impact of adoption in all its complexity. We learn from parents how their quest to have and raise a child has played out in real life, and what shadows might have fallen between the dream and the reality. And we learn from the children the many ways that being adopted shaped their development, their sense of identity; what went wrong along the way and how we may help. Clinical work with parents and children as well as with adults who were adopted is the focus of Understanding Adoption. Because adoption has become widely practiced, accepted, and accessible, and because it has greatly changed the composition of families, it is a timely subject for study. The authors of this book undertake exploration of this important terrain of loss and connection, and of the fragility and resilience of human bonds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781461632351
Publisher:	Aronson, Jason Inc.
Publication date:	08/31/2006
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	268
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Diana Siskind, a practicing psychotherapist, psychoanalyst, supervisor and teacher is on the staff of the New York School for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and is a former senior staff member of the Child Development Center and a former teacher at Smith School for Social work. In addition to writing journal articles and book chapters she has written 3 books: The Child Patient and The Therapeutic Process (1992), Working with Parents (1997) and A Primer for Child Therapists (1999) all published by Jason Aronson Publishers. Dr. Siskind is on the editorial board of Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy and the book review editor of the National Membership Committee on Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work Newsletter. She was named Distinguished Practitioner by the National Academy of Practice. Susan Sherman is a psychoanalyst and psychotherapist with a practice of adults, adolescents, and children. She is on the faculty of the Advanced Training Program, Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services and the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center. She previously taught at the Columbia University School of Social Work and the Adelphi University School of Social Work. She has published articles in clinical journals. Dr. Sherman was named Distinguished Practitioner by the National Academy of Practice. Kathleen Hushion is a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst working with children, adolescents and adults. She is a member of the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR) and the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA). She is also faculty member and supervisor for IPTAR's Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Training Program.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Clinical Issues
Chapter 2 The World of Adoption: An Introduction
Chapter 3 Unconscious Communication and the Transmission of Loss
Chapter 4 International Adoption: Projection and Externalization in the Treatment of a 4 Year Old Child and her Parents
Chapter 5 Working with Parents of Adopted Infants and Toddlers
Chapter 6 Gay and Lesbian Parents in the World of Adoption
Chapter 7 Losing Each Other in the Wake of Loss: Failed Dialogues in Adoptive Families
Chapter 8 The Adoption of Foster Children Who Suffered Early Trauma and Object Loss: Implications for Practice
Chapter 9 Secrecy in the Psychotherapy of a Severely Traumatized Adopted Child
Chapter 10 Adoption Fantasy in the Treatment of Two Adolescent Girls
Chapter 11 Identity and Identification: Being Different and the Quest to Belong in an Adopted Young Adult
Chapter 12 The Plight of the Adoptee in Adult Life: A Case of Kinship Adoption
Chapter 13 Loss and the Dynamics of an Adoptee's Identification with Her Birth Mother
Part 14 Special Issues
Chapter 15 Child Custody Disputes in Adoption Cases: Safeguarding the Relationship with the Psychological Parent
Chapter 16 Consultation during the Adoption Process: Working with Families Adopting Older Russian Children
Chapter 17 Birth Parents and Adoptive Parents: Who are the 'Real' Parents?

Editorial Reviews

Understanding Adoption is a long-overdue look into how adoption affects everyone involved, from the clinician/patient and parent/child dyads, to the social workers, teachers, foster parents, medical professionals, and adoption process. It is a groundbreaking and very welcome contribution to the literature and deserves to be widely read and discussed....an incredibly valuable tool. It as the unevenness expectable of writing breaking new ground, and is all the more exciting to read....Given the opportunity to turn back time, we would gift a copy of this book to each and every coworker and adoptive family in our care.

Psychoanalytic Books - .

...is an excellent book...is easy to read and jargon-free. It is a tour de force of issues on adoption....a wonderful tool for teaching concepts of attachment theory, internalizastion and identity formation. It thoroughly covers the process of psychotherapy as well as how tranference and counter-transference affect the treatment.

Psychoanalytic Social Work - 2007

This is a wonderful and desperately needed book addressing the multiple levels of complexity faced by clinicians working with adopted children and their families. The authors address a topic that has received virtually no attention in the psychoanalytic literature, despite the fact that adoption has long been recognized as posing particular challenges to families and clinicians alike. The need for a broad reaching and nuanced discussion of these issues is especially keen today, when traditional, international, and non-traditional adoptions bring families to the consulting room on a very regular basis. Thankfully, this compilation of clinically rich, compelling, thoughtful and accessible papers will give clinicians a much needed and wise guide to navigating the array of diverse internal, familial, biological, and societal influences that characterize each adoption story.

Arietta Slade

A deeply compassionate and illuminating exploration of the psychological ramifications of adoption in all of its diverse forms.

Francine Cournos

Rarely has an edited volume on the topic of adoption offered so rich a collection of chapters steeped in theory and clinical practice examples. ...clinicians working with this population could find few better uses for the modest purchase price of the paperback version of Understanding Adoption. However, the use many readers will make of this volume might warrant investing in a hardback copy....

Clinical Social Work Journal

...is an excellent book...is easy to read and jargon-free. It is a tour de force of issues on adoption....a wonderful tool for teaching concepts of attachment theory, internalizastion and identity formation. It thoroughly covers the process of psychotherapy as well as how tranference and counter-transference affect the treatment.

From the Publisher

...is an excellent book...is easy to read and jargon-free. It is a tour de force of issues on adoption....a wonderful tool for teaching concepts of attachment theory, internalizastion and identity formation. It thoroughly covers the process of psychotherapy as well as how tranference and counter-transference affect the treatment. 2007

Psychoanalytic Social Work

Understanding Adoption is a long-overdue look into how adoption affects everyone involved, from the clinician/patient and parent/child dyads, to the social workers, teachers, foster parents, medical professionals, and adoption process. It is a groundbreaking and very welcome contribution to the literature and deserves to be widely read and discussed....an incredibly valuable tool. It as the unevenness expectable of writing breaking new ground, and is all the more exciting to read....Given the opportunity to turn back time, we would gift a copy of this book to each and every coworker and adoptive family in our care.

Psychoanalytic Books - Winter 2008

The world of adoption has undergone radical change and, for the first time, we have a book, which brings together the range, variety, complexity and impact of adoption on everyone involved. For all those therapists, teachers and parents who need to understand the contemporary experience of adoption, this significant book is an important basic reference that speaks to the complex challenges adoption can pose to child and adult development, and also illuminates the potential for secure identity and joyful engagement with the future for each person in the adoptive configuration.

Kerry Kelly Novick and Jack Novick

Understanding Adoption is a long-overdue look into how adoption affects everyone involved, from the clinician/patient and parent/child dyads, to the social workers, teachers, foster parents, medical professionals, and adoption process. It is a groundbreaking and very welcome contribution to the literature and deserves to be widely read and discussed....an incredibly valuable tool. It as the unevenness expectable of writing breaking new ground, and is all the more exciting to read....Given the opportunity to turn back time, we would gift a copy of this book to each and every coworker and adoptive family in our care.
— Winter 2008

Psychoanalytic Books