Adoption has become widely practiced, accepted, and accessible, and has greatly changed the composition of families making it a timely subject for study. The authors of Understanding Adoption undertake exploration of this important terrain of loss and connection, and of the fragility and resilience of human bonds.

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.

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?