Psychoanalytic Theory as it Relates to Adoption

Abstract

Samuel Kaplan opened the morning session by focusing the discussion on the steadily increasing effort made by psychoanalysts to utilize their knoivledge and skills toward solution of pressing social problems. He felt that the panel on adoption constituted one of the first organized efforts on the part of the American Psychoanalytic Association to study a specific legal and social issue from the point of view of psychoanalyqc theory and practice. In his review of the literature, preparatory to the morning presentation, Kaplan dealt first with the incidence of emotional disturbance in adopted children and then with psychological issues peculiar to the adopted child. Included among many controversial issues were those revolving around the timing and method of informing the child about his adopted status.He referred to articles by Schechter, Toussieng, and others which pointed to the high incidence of adoptees in psychiatric practice. Conversely, there were Bernard, Goodman, and Kirk who suggested that the reports from guidance clinics, agencies, and physicians could not measure adoptee outcomes in general. These people felt that so far no reliable figures are available for comparing the rates of maladjustment for nonadoptive and adoptive children.Disagreement was noted in the literature on the specificity of psychopathology. Thus, Chess believes that the adoptive factor was only secondary and complicating in nature and never the nucleus of the adoptee's psychological problems. Other authors suggested that the stresses and strains that might be found in the relationships of parents and child depend on the interplay between particular attributes of the parents and the facts and fantasies revolving around the child's adopted status. Authors who saw the adoptive status as of primary etiological significance tended to emphasize the dramatic impact of early separation, multiple placements, and the child's discovery of his adopted status relatively late in childhood. There was a good deal of emphasis in various articles on the importance of the "family ro-Held at the Fall Meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association, New York. December, 1966. Chairman: Samuel Kaplan, M.D.

Psychological and academic adjustment in adopted children.

“…Psychoanalytic theory, for example, suggests that the experience of adoption sets the stage for disturbances in personality and identity development, especially because of doubt surrounding the true circumstances of the child's birth, and because the child has two sets of parents, instead of one, with whom to identify (cf. Peller, 1961;Sants, 1964;Schechter, 1967;Wieder, 1977aWieder, , 1977b. Ethological theory, as represented in the work of Bowlby (1969Bowlby ( , 1973, also suggests that adopted children are at risk for emotional problems, but only in cases where there is disruption in the development and continuity of primary attachment relationships.…”

A Study of Adopted Children, Their Back‐ground, Environment and Adjustment

“…4. It is agreed that the child should be informed about the situation but opinions differ as to the age at which the child should first learn about its adoptive status (5,16,18,23,24). 5.…”

Open and Closed Adoption: A Developmental Conceptualization

“…A second line of evidence supporting the sentiment that traditional, closed adoption is a univocal, negative experience has been reinforced in the clinical literature primarily by members of the psychoanalytic community (7, 12, 20, 36, 51, 61, 73 ‐ 75, 84, 108, 119, 125, 147). Several analysts have acknowledged that adoption is often of great physical, psychological, and social value to all parties concerned (10, 58, 77, 149).…”