Second Report on the Problems of Adopted Children

In last year's report1 we discussed the aims of our study group and its method of work. The method consists of close examination and a weekly discussion by all group members of the analytic material of a few adopted children treated at the Clinic. We had at that time studied the data on four children, all treated by members of the group. Of the four, Elsie finished treatment some time ago, Anne finished hers in 1979, Sophie is in the last phase of her treatment and William is continuing with his.

This year we added two more children to our sample: Jacqueline, an adolescent girl of 14 ¹/₂ who started treatment at the age of 13, and Maria, aged 12 ¹/₂, whose treatment began at 11 ¹/₂. In addition, we have discussed one particularly interesting theme in the analytic material of Peter2, a boy of 10 years 8 months. Peter and Maria were not legally adopted but they have several problems in common with the adopted children.

In our initial report we formulated the general aim of our study as that of acquainting ourselves with the inner world of the adopted child; more specifically, his fantasies about his adoption and his biological parents. We cited analytic material pointing to the children's difficulties in having two mothers, one of them, we felt, being a ‘phantom mother’ for the child adopted in infancy.

We found in the reports we studied evidence of a strong wish on the part of these children for some link with their past, whether via their previous christian names or a piece of clothing brought from a previous home.

The repercussions of adoption on the child's sense of identity, on his self representation and self-esteem emerged as important areas for further study.