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THE PURPOSE OF THIS PAPER IS TO PRESENT UNIQUE CLINICAL MATErial, namely, the appearance, for the first time, of the biological mother of a 12-year-old adopted boy during the course of his analysis. In addition to a description of the patient's response, I shall discuss technical issues raised by the mother's appearance and its effect on intrapsychic representations and the transference.
Very few case reports in the analytic literature focus on adoption (Wieder, 1978); (Brinich, 1980); (Sherick, 1983). I could find none that focuses on the sudden unexpected appearance of a biological parent, especially during an analysis. This circumstance provided a rare opportunity to study intrapsychic effects, particularly on the patient's object representations of parental figures, as well as effects on the analytic process.
Ron, a small, wiry 10-year-old, was referred because of fighting in school, particularly with younger children. He lacked friends and was the subject of ridicule by his peer group. Bed wetting had been a continuous problem since toddlerhood. He expressed a vivid, violent fantasy life and had frequent nightmares. He was afraid of being alone, day or night.
Ron's natural parents had been unmarried teen-agers at the