The Real Mother-Issues in Adoption

Our society has deemed adoption a desirable alternative method of creating a family. It satisifies the need of a child for parents, it gratifies the desire of adults who yearn to provide a home and love for a child, and it gracefully solves the dilemma for the one who cannot or will not raise the child. In addition to the usual developmental conflicts, families involved in adoption will encounter a variety of fears, fantasies, resentments, and misconceptions which may adversely affect identity formation in the child. Here I will attempt to explore some of the psychodynamic issues which will be of help to beginning therapists in their work with adoptive families