Understanding Adoption: Clinical Work with Adults, Children, and Parents [Paperback]

Kathleen Hushion (Editor), Susan B. Sherman (Editor), Diana Siskind (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0765704269 | ISBN-13: 978-0765704269 | Publication Date: August 31, 2006

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Rarely has an edited volume on the topic of adoption offered so rich a collection of chapters steeped in theory and clinical practice examples. ...clinicians working with this population could find few better uses for the modest purchase price of the paperback version of Understanding Adoption. However, the use many readers will make of this volume might warrant investing in a hardback copy.... (Clinical Social Work Journal )

This is a wonderful and desperately needed book addressing the multiple levels of complexity faced by clinicians working with adopted children and their families. The authors address a topic that has received virtually no attention in the psychoanalytic literature, despite the fact that adoption has long been recognized as posing particular challenges to families and clinicians alike. The need for a broad reaching and nuanced discussion of these issues is especially keen today, when traditional, international, and non-traditional adoptions bring families to the consulting room on a very regular basis. Thankfully, this compilation of clinically rich, compelling, thoughtful and accessible papers will give clinicians a much needed and wise guide to navigating the array of diverse internal, familial, biological, and societal influences that characterize each adoption story. (Arietta Slade, Ph.D. )

A deeply compassionate and illuminating exploration of the psychological ramifications of adoption in all of its diverse forms. (Francine Cournos, MD )

...is an excellent book...is easy to read and jargon-free. It is a tour de force of issues on adoption....a wonderful tool for teaching concepts of attachment theory, internalizastion and identity formation. It thoroughly covers the process of psychotherapy as well as how tranference and counter-transference affect the treatment. (Psychoanalytic Social Work )

|s|a|fKatherine Marsh

The world of adoption has undergone radical change and, for the first time, we have a book, which brings together the range, variety, complexity and impact of adoption on everyone involved. For all those therapists, teachers and parents who need to understand the contemporary experience of adoption, this significant book is an important basic reference that speaks to the complex challenges adoption can pose to child and adult development, and also illuminates the potential for secure identity and joyful engagement with the future for each person in the adoptive configuration. (Kerry Kelly Novick and Jack Novick )

Rarely has an edited volume on the topic of adoption offered so rich a collection of chapters steeped in theory and clinical practice examples. ...clinicians working with this population could find few better uses for the modest purchase price of the paperback version of Understanding Adoption. However, the use many readers will make of this volume might warrant investing in a hardback copy. (Clinical Social Work Journal )

Understanding Adoption is a long-overdue look into how adoption affects everyone involved, from the clinician/patient and parent/child dyads, to the social workers, teachers, foster parents, medical professionals, and adoption process. It is a groundbreaking and very welcome contribution to the literature and deserves to be widely read and discussed....an incredibly valuable tool. It as the unevenness expectable of writing breaking new ground, and is all the more exciting to read....Given the opportunity to turn back time, we would gift a copy of this book to each and every coworker and adoptive family in our care. (Winter 2008 Psychoanalytic Books )

About the Author

Diana Siskind, a practicing psychotherapist, psychoanalyst, supervisor and teacher is on the staff of the New York School for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and is a former senior staff member of the Child Development Center and a former teacher at Smith School for Social work. In addition to writing journal articles and book chapters she has written 3 books: The Child Patient and The Therapeutic Process (1992), Working with Parents (1997) and A Primer for Child Therapists (1999) all published by Jason Aronson Publishers. Dr. Siskind is on the editorial board of Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy and the book review editor of the National Membership Committee on Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work Newsletter. She was named Distinguished Practitioner by the National Academy of Practice. Susan Sherman is a psychoanalyst and psychotherapist with a practice of adults, adolescents, and children. She is on the faculty of the Advanced Training Program, Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services and the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center. She previously taught at the Columbia University School of Social Work and the Adelphi University School of Social Work. She has published articles in clinical journals. Dr. Sherman was named Distinguished Practitioner by the National Academy of Practice. Kathleen Hushion is a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst working with children, adolescents and adults. She is a member of the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR) and the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA). She is also faculty member and supervisor for IPTAR's Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Training Program.

Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: Jason Aronson, Inc. (August 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765704269
• ISBN-13: 978-0765704269
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #917,672 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)