Adoption Life Cycle: The Children and Their Families Through the Years [Hardcover]

Elinor B. Rosenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1992 | ISBN-10: 0029270553 | ISBN-13: 978-0029270554 | Edition: 1

Adoption has been heavily criticized recently as an outdated social institution. This book argues that it is still the best solution to a significant social problem, but that its limits and possibilities, as opposed to natural parenthood, need to be more fully understood and appreciated. Rosenberg examines the process and results of adoption from the perspective of each of the three main parties - the adopters, the adoptees and the original parents. She describes the problems of adjustment and explores the types of relationship that can develop between each of the three parties. She also includes a clinical analysis of the psychological effects of adoption.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Many of the growing number of books about adoption are essentially how-tos, guiding prospective adoptive parents through the emotional and legal thickets adoption requires. Rosenberg, a family therapist and professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan, has written a more unusual work: a careful, scholarly examination of the psychological relationships involved in the strange three-way partnership of child, birth parents and adoptive parents. Each party, she points out, has its own set of priorities and anxieties, and she addresses these with imagination and empathy (she might have included more case studies, however, in order to enliven and humanize her work). Rosenberg also illuminates changing social attitudes toward adoption, from secretiveness to cheery optimism to the current state of anxiety about being completely fair to all parties--an impossibility given the highly conflicted nature of the process itself. She thoughtfully raises many seldom-aired questions with insight and candor.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 209 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1 edition (August 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0029270553
• ISBN-13: 978-0029270554
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,188,744 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well balanced professionally written book on adoption issues, June 10, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Adoption Life Cycle: The Children and Their Families Through the Years (Hardcover)

This well-balanced book will appeal to a wide range of readers. It provides a well integrated presentation of significant issues of adoption. It discusses developmental tasks of birth parents, adoptive parents and adoptees with commentary on their overlapping issues and intrrelationships. A section on clinical interventions is technical in approach and incorporates developmental stages. The book closes with discussion of legal and social implications. I have spent days searching libraries and data bases for solid information on adoption and life stages. This book is a direct hit for all members of the adoption triad as well as those in the helping professions

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding adoption, February 1, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Adoption Life Cycle: The Children and Their Families Through the Years (Hardcover)

This is a well written and easy to understand book on the issues involved in adoption. Anyone who has adopted, is adopted, or plans to adopt a child will benefit from the insights in this text.

3 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars plans other than adoption, need to be made for handicapped, May 18, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Adoption Life Cycle: The Children and Their Families Through the Years (Hardcover)

Rosenberg is a social worker and adopter. Her field is adoption and she adopted two "blue ribbon" babies at least 30 years ago. Her book provides special insight into the true nature of adoption and who benefits from it.

About half way through the book, after she has discussed her need to adopt and her experiences as an adoption professional she casually addresses what happens to "handicapped," bi-racial and older children who "need" families. She says "other plans need to be made" for these children. She means plans other than adoption.

It doesn't get any better than this if you want to see the naked soul of evil. This book is a well written discription of Rosenberg's personal and professional experiences with adoption.