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ADOPTION IS ACKNOWLEDGED AS A VITALLY IMPORTANT INSTITUtion in our society; nevertheless, growing up as an adopted child involves losses, risks, and deprivations which affect the development of personality. One type of loss is the disruption of existing attachments, which might be called "overt loss." This risk is clearly present for children placed after 6 months, but may be a factor even in the earliest weeks. A second type of risk is "status loss" which arises from having a different appearance from that of the adopters, or otherwise having it known by others that one is "different." A third, complex class of risk arises from social and intrapsychic factors which I group under the heading of "covert losses"; the knowledge of having been relinquished, with concomitant effects upon self-esteem; lack of knowledge about one's original parents; and various kinds of stigmatizing experience which cause adoptees to feel that their status in our society is ambiguous and their rights compromised. I will refer to all three types, but will emphasize the effects of covert losses on individual development, and ways in which parents can be helped to minimize such effects.
Around 1970, American couples who sought to adopt healthy