Some theoretical considerations on confidential adoptions part III: The adopted child

In all cases of newborn adoption where placement is made directly into the permanent adoptive home, the adoptive parents become the psychological parents for that child. While adopted children do have separate psychological and genetic parents, the capacity for intimacy, identity, and a cohesive sense of self develops through the consistent empathic attachment between the adoptive parents and the child. We discuss the adopted child's psychological development through infancy, pre-oedipal, oedipal, latency, and adolescence and focus on the child's intrapsychic tasks at each developmental phase. We note how development is different for the adopted child and how this development would be diminished or enhanced by the direct or subtle indirect involvement in an open or confidential adoption. Open adoptions appear to have the risk of serious interference at each developmental phase. Confidential adoptions appear to provide the child with the psychological protection for the unfolding of development. There is a new trend in the field of child welfare toward openness in adoption, which purports to change traditional confidential adoptions. We discuss the crucial aspects of the intrapsychic difference for an adopted child experiencing an open or confidential adoption.And so they wrangled before the King... Kings II, Ch. VThis paper was presented to the National Committee for Adoption Convention, October, 1982; the First International Conference on Pediatric Social Work, August, 1982; and to the Child Care Association of Illinois Convention, April, 1982. All authors have the M.A. degree     

Some theoretical considerations on confidential adoptions,part I: The birth mother

In all cases of newborn adoption where placement is made directly into the permanent adoptive home, the adoptive parents become the psychological parents for that child. While birth parents give the gift of birth, they do not experience the developmental process of being a parent because in reality they are emotionally unprepared for this responsibility. We discuss the clinical meaning of a voluntary termination of parental rights, the appropriate grieving of the real narcissistic loss of the baby, and the meaning of adoption for a birth parent.There is a new trend in the field of child welfare toward openness in adoption which purports to change traditional confidential adoptions. We discuss the crucial aspects of the intrapsychic difference for a birth parent experiencing an open or confidential adoption.This paper was presented to the National Committee for Adoption, Convention, October, 1982: the First International Conference on Pediatric Social Work, August, 1982 and to the Child Care Association of Illinois Convention, April, 1982. All authors have the M.A. degreeThis paper is the first of a four-part series to appear in this journal     

Factors Contributing to Parents’ Preparation For Special-Needs Adoption

Three hundred and sixty-eight parents shared their perceptions of special-needs adoption preparation. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative data to determine and understand what factors contribute to preparation, this study found that 12 child, family, and agency variables were correlated with perceived preparation, and that parents perceived level of preparation was predicted by the childs ability to attach, by the parents relationship with the agency, by the duration of the adoption, and by the parents ages at the time of adoption. Implications of these findings are discussed, as they relate to supporting parents, children, and families in special-needs adoptive placements.     

Adoptive parenting and the norm of family emotionality

This paper is concerned with the construction of the sense of a common bond in adoptive families. First, I clarify how adoptive families construct this sense in relation to biological families. Second, by examining features of adoptive family life, I suggest a new way of understanding non-adoptive families. Presuppositions about normal family relationships dominate the start of adoptive family life. As seen from the actors' perspective, emotional normalization is a crucial indicator of successful adoptive family life. I outline how involuntarily childless couples try to accomplish normality when applying for a child, and how achieving the assumed normality of nonadoptive families continues after adoption.I appreciate Shulamit Reinharz' careful editing, and thank her for helping me share some of my research findings with an American audience.     

Antisocial behavior in adoptees: Patterns and dynamics

A recurrent pattern of provocative, antisocial, delinquent behaviors has been found by the senior author and others to be characteristic of clinically referred adopted children and adolescents. Although the parents often defensively insist that adoption is not relevant to the child's problems, the child himself frequently reveals obsessive fantasies about his birth parents. The underlying psychodynamics include the child's inability to integrate two sets of parental images—often one bad and the other good—into a single realistic image, and resultant impairment in the development of the superego. A negative self-image is often mirrored by the adoptive parents' projection of their own unacceptable impulses onto the child and the birth parents. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for post-adoption counseling, clinical treatment, open records, and screening of potential adoptive parents.     

The route to voluntary non-custody: How mothers decide to relinquish child custody

This exploratory investigation of mothers' decisions to voluntarily relinquish child custody indicates that (1) mothers tend to make these decisions alone, i.e., without consulting kin or friends, (2) it is mothers who decide against custody rather than fathers who decide for it, and (3) mothers attribute their decisions either to external factors which disrupted their ability to provide a good home, to idiosyncracies of their relationship to their child, or to stable aspects of their own personalities which rendered them generally incapable of good mothering.Revised version of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Orthopsychiatric Association, San Francisco, March 1982. Thomasina Borkman, David Haines, and Judith L. Fischer made many helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.     

Privacy and privilege: Patients', professionals', and the public's rights

Conflict between the individual's right to privacy and the public's right to know is increasing as insurance companies and other third parties are demanding more information about patients and clients and data banks are storing it for retrieval and later use. Social workers are ethically bound to protect the privacy of their relationships with patients and clients and the confidentiality of their communications. But there are situations in which the obligation to society is deemed greater than the individual's right to privacy, and even in states in which their patients' and clients' communications are granted privilege by law, the social worker can be required by law to divulge confidential information or risk being held in contempt of court. This paper will discuss the individual's right to privacy, privilege and its exceptions, and present examples of court decisions related to these issues.     

Queering Identities: The Roles of Integrity and Belonging in Becoming Ourselves

This article presents a picture of the complexities and contradictions in the daily lives of people in the Seacoast area of New Hampshire who identify as, or are identified as, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender queer, questioning, and allied people (LGBTQQA). In this study, the author uses a grounded theory approach to focus on the Create Our Destiny conference. Clear patterns emerged, such as the importance of coming out, labels, and gender identity. A common theme underlying these areas was the tension people experienced between seeking a sense of belonging and maintaining their personal sense of integrity. This study shows that people in the Seacoast want to be fully and wholly themselves, or as the author represents their interests, to strive toward singularity. The author argues that striving towards singularity requires people to grapple with their unexamined codes and principles, such as those pertaining to compulsory heterosexuality and gender duality, by increasing and valuing self-awareness and reflexivity.     

Good Enough Adoptive Parenting—The Adopted Child and Selfobject Relations

The article focuses on the needs and problems of adoptive parents, in the framework of self-psychology. It examines several conditions that may impair optimal selfobject relations between adoptive parents and their child, so that self-development and individuation of the adoptee will be at risk: insufficient mourning of the wound of infertility; early narcissistic vulnerability; over-sensitivity to abandonment; proneness to use primitive character defenses; and marital pathology such as insufficient couple alliance. The importance of early individual and couple assessment is stressed, in order to sift, prepare and support the adoptive parents in the complex task of being parents as well as therapists. Successful adoption is interpreted as a mutual process of healing of early damages, thereby contributing to the experience of an integrated self by both parents and child.     

A quantitative theory of preferences: Some results on transition functions

We investigate a general theory of combining individual preferences into collective choice. The preferences are treated quantitatively, by means of preference functions (a,b), where 0(a,b) expresses the degree of preference of a to b. A transition function is a function (x,y) which computes (a,c) from (a,b) and (b,c), namely (a,c)=((a,b),(b,c)). We prove that given certain (reasonable) conditions on how individual preferences are aggregated, there is only one transition function that satisfies these conditions, namely the function (x,y)=x·y (multiplication of odds). We also formulate a property of transition functions called invariance, and prove that there is no invariant transition function; this impossibility theorem shows limitations of the quantitative method.Research supported in part by the National Science Foundation.     

The development of a capacity for concern in antisocial children: Winnicott's concept of human relatedness

Winnicott's refreshing view of clinical practice includes the unique notion that delinquency is a sign of hope. Several of Winnicott's interpersonal concepts fit together to develop this thought: holding environment, capacity for concern, the use of the object, and hate in the counter transference. In this paper these four concepts are described and the case of a ten-year-old antisocial youngster is used to illustrate Winnicott's thinking and tie some of his illusive ideas into a difficult but familiar kind of practice situation. The therapeutic approach used was a mixture of case management and play therapy. What is different however is the way in which the therapist interpreted the youngster's behavior and stimulated his rich fantasy life.     

Promoting Justice in the Delivery of Services to Juvenile Delinquents: The Ecosystemic Natural Wrap-Around Model

Caught between their child and doing the right thing, families of chronic juvenile delinquents often experience a series of injustices in the name of justice. Attempts by the system to correct the delinquency problem often result in the imposition of values and beliefs that negate the family's values, experiences and meanings of their child's behavior. The Ecosystemic Natural Wrap-around (E.N.W.) model attempts to respectfully account for the many influences that maintain problematic interactions, both internal and external, in the nuclear family of chronic juvenile delinquents. The model focuses on a variety of interventions at different levels and contexts, building on the strengths of the family, using the extended family and fictive kin networks, and clarifying the meanings associated with problematic behavior for the multiple players. The model proposed is an integrative theoretical approach, emphasizing systems theory and constructivism.     

Challenging the Silence of the Mental Health Community on Adoption Issues

As traditional secrecy surrounding adoption has waned, the behavioral sciences, particularly the mental health community, have remained largely silent, particularly on postadoption issues. Reasons for this silence are suggested. Research on adoption is difficult to conduct. The mental health community may desire to see adoption as professional problem-solving and as a favor done to all involved. Problems in adoption thus represent both a failure on the part of those professionals and a favor gone bad. Fear that discussing adoption-related problems will lead to adoption itself being labeled as pathological is also likely operating to support the silence. Privacy issues for the adoptive and birth families are also important. Sexuality and childbirth have long been areas not sufficiently addressed, but with the addition of the illegitimacy common in adoption they are even more controversial. Issues of poverty, powerlessness, social class, and race also are difficult to face, as is the business aspect of adoption. Acknowledging the reasons for the silence may be the first step in addressing it. Other steps, such as continuing education programs and publication of information on postadoption issues are also suggested.     

Social distress and theorizations of child victimization

This paper presents an in- depth analysis of theoretical accounts of the epidemiology, process, and causalities of child victimization as the manifestation of social distress. Through a comprehensive search of the literature, 46 theories (also models and perspectives) were compiled and categorized into nine paradigms that were further characterized in terms of three bipolar continua. In this paper, the major representative concepts of each paradigm are presented and evaluated to highlight the commonalities, strengths, and weaknesses of its member theories. It is concluded that the history of child victimization theorizations has passed through three progression stages — the speculations of the 1960s, the introspective explorations of the 1970s, and the diversity of the 1980s. It now has reached the multidisciplinary integration of the 1990s. In short, an ideal theory is required for each type of social distress phenomenon (such as the child victimization presented in this paper). It must integrate all existing theories such that various controversial and inconclusive theoretical and practical issues can be organized under a common framework for the design, improvement, and implementation of effective service programs.     

New dimensions of social movements: The high-level waste-siting controversy

This paper argues that the widespread, irreversible, and catastrophic potentials associated with some contemporary genres of grievances make derivative social movements novel in respects different from those emphasized by French, Italian, and German analysts using the concept new social movements. This European concept distinguishes between new and old protests to emphasize significant changes in the nature of the contemporary state or the value systems of its citizens, a distinction that has not been accentuated in the United States. The argument here is that only certain contemporary technology movements are really novel—and for reasons other than those alleged by advocates of the new social movements.     

“Racism” and Colonialism: Meanings of Difference and Ruling Practices in America's Pacific Empire

This article examines the meanings of race and difference in the first years of American colonialism in the Philippines, Guam, and Samoa. Moving beyond existing sociological studies of race and colonial discourse, I demonstrate that the meanings of racial difference in the U.S. Pacific empire were contemporaneously polyvalent, constituting an overarching field of multiple rather than uniform classifications. The different meanings formed the basis for intra-imperial debate among colonizing agents. They also contributed to notable variations in forms of colonial governance and policy across the empire. The implication for future study is that race should best be apprehended as a code that takes on specific meanings and obtains its social force only in particular contexts of use and utterance.     

The American commune and the American mythology

While the symbolic value of community has long been recognized, most of the attention to date has focussed on the symbolic content of the American small town, taken as representing the most fundamental and lasting values and characteristics of the American Way of Life (Vidich and Bensman, 1968, Caplowet al., 1982).Here it is argued that communities existing not in the cultural center but rather on the periphery also contain symbolic potency and are so interpreted by the dominant society. As is demonstrated by the case of the Amana Colonies, such communities represent the Other within. They present both the possibility of cultural alternatives and the ultimate victory of mainstream values and structures. The tension between history and myth, community and society, is then related to interpretation of other communal societies and their relationship to the dominant American society.For helpful comments on an earlier version, I would like to thank David Bouchier and Maren Lockwood Carden.     

Social factors in facial display and communication: A reply to Chovil and others

This paper discusses the Chovil (1991) study, questioning the assumption that the notion of facial display as communication is incompatible with that of facial display as readout of motivational/emotional response. It is argued that (a) the Chovil paper oversimplifies the view of the competition; (b) social factors can facilitateor inhibit expression depending upon the nature of the emotion being expressed and the expressor's personal relationship with the other; and (c) social factors produce strong social emotions, so that any manipulation of sociality must also manipulate emotion.Preparation of this paper was supported in part by NIMH grant MH-40753 to Ross Buck, and by the University of Connecticut Research Foundation.     

This is my ...: How Cohabitants introduce their partners

Cohabitors were asked by questionnaire to indicate how they introduced their partners to parents, friends, acquaintances and employers. Findings from 76 male and 79 female subjects suggest that, when introducing a partner in social interactions, the relationship between a cohabitor and the person to whom the introduction is made has an effect upon the title used to describe her or his partner. The most common mode of introduction was boyfriend or girlfriend, the term lover being reserved generally for close friends. Over 10% of the remaining responses conveyed varying degrees of information concerning the emotional and physical nature of the relationship and/or the cohabitor's household.The authors wish to express their thanks to Jim Kerr, morning announcer of WPLJ-FM, for his cooperation in this study.     

Inclusive Governance and “Minority” Groups: The Role of the Third Sector in Wales

Following the establishment of a national legislature in Wales in 1999 the third sector has entered into a pioneering cross-sectoral partnership with the Welsh government. This paper presents the results of a research project that has studied the new structures of devolved governance through the expectations and participation of voluntary organizations representing three marginalized or minority groupings: women, disabled people, and those from an ethnic minority background. The findings reveal that despite varying levels of expectation expressed by minority voluntary groups, active engagement of minority groups in policy making has been a feature of the Assembly's first months. Nevertheless, formidable challenges face both sectoral partners in the new system of governance, not least in creating organizational structures that facilitate partnership working in the devolved polity.