The Contribution of a Child Psychotherapist to an Adoption and Fostering Team

Maltby, Jane

doi:10.1177/030857599401800209

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“…Being dropped is painful: being picked up gives the child the opportunity to cry. As psychodynamic workers, we have to recognize the need not only to offer help directly to the child, but to be available to consult to their adoptive parents and to the network where these themes may be re-enacted in the adoption process (Maltby, 1994;Obholzer and Zagier Roberts, 1994;Lanyado, 1999;Sprince, 2000;Canham, in press). …”

Section: T E L L I N G T H E S To Ry: M E M O Ry a N D T H I N K I N Gmentioning

confidence: 99%

On being dropped and picked up: adopted children and their internal objects

Edwards¹

2000

Journal of Child Psychotherapy

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The eld of adoption has changed over the past years from one where there were babies available for many adoptive couples to one where increasingly the children who are needing adoption are those who have already suffered deprivations and dif culties in their families of origin, with disrupted attachments and a consequent traumatizing effect of their early history on their internal worlds. Professionals working with these children, who have in effect been 'dropped', face the dif cult task not only of placing them appropriately but of supporting their adoptive families. With the new experience of a secure base the original trauma may be reworked, and the new framework tested by these damaged and consequently often damaging children as they replay their feelings of being unwanted and unwantable. In describing once-weekly work with a 6-year-old adopted boy, I suggest that the primary disillusion of his neonatal experience caused an internal catastrophe which was then reworked in his adoptive placement. This child did not experience what Winnicott (1971) called 'gradual disillusion' in terms of his belief that he creates the needed breast, and thus integration of love and hate of the primary object, but remained in a state of hyper-vigilance because of the de cits in his internal world. These de cits have been able partially to be addressed in psychotherapy treatment. KEYWORDS Adoption; defects in the object; psychotherapy with adopted children; Oedipus complex; ADHD.Happy are those who lose imagination; They have enough to carry with ammunition. Their spirit drags no pack, Their old wounds, save with cold, can not more ache. Having seen all things red,

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Section: T E L L I N G T H E S To Ry: M E M O Ry a N D T H I N K I N Gmentioning

confidence: 99%

On being dropped and picked up: adopted children and their internal objects

Edwards¹

2000

Journal of Child Psychotherapy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

The Contribution of a Child Psychotherapist to an Adoption and Fostering Team

Cited by 1 publication

References 3 publications

On being dropped and picked up: adopted children and their internal objects

On being dropped and picked up: adopted children and their internal objects

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