The Adoptee's Journey

The subject of adoption has often been mired in wishful thinking and denial. Because of the secrecy in the system, adopted children have been forced to repress their need to know about their origins; many feel invisible because an essential part of them is unacknowledged by their adoptive parents and society. The purpose of this article is to help mental health and legal professionals, as well as those in the extended community, to see what is specific about the formation of the adoptee's inner world. It introduces the concept of cumulative adoption trauma and discusses the adoptee's need to dissociate feelings of loss, grief, and anger. The struggle to form a coherent sense of self may eventually lead to the adoptee's need to search out the birth parents in order to integrate the past and the present and move on into the future.