This time I found an article titled "Myra’s Story: A Life Narrative as It Unfolds
in the Treatment and Journey of an Adopted Woman." It's a real life story as told by Sandra Rosengarten. The journal it was found in Psychoanalytic Inquiry from the EBSCO database. The author of this article is very credible, she has her masters degree in social work and it talks about her work as a psychotherapist in the article. She also writes for a very scholarly journal that is bursting full of information.
I agree with this article regarding adoption and the trials that adoptees face because my experience with my own siblings confirms it. In the article it talks about how Myra had trouble with relationships when she was in her adult years which most likely stemmed from the sexual abuse she faced with her birthfather. From similar experience (not with myself) any type of abuse either before adoption or during mixed with the struggles of being unwanted/adopted can cause a bunch of unwanted anger and hatred like seen with Myra. Those unfamiliar with the process of adoption may be interested to know that the ideas of neglect and being unwanted that are in an adopted child's head cause more damage in later life. They may be uncovered when they're younger like I read with Myra when she was a child but as they get older the thoughts begin to consume their minds and they don't like to talk about it. All in all, adoption is a great idea but it comes with many risks but in a lot of cases unlike this one the outcomes are seemingly good.
This was an interesting choice of article since it gave a psychotherapist's interpretation about why Myra was struggling to process the adoption.
ReplyDeleteAs you are posting, don't forget to give me a 2-4 sentence statement that indicates why the source you are choosing advances your research purpose and caters to your audience. I'm not saying this article doesn't do that. I'm just saying that I want to see you being able to articulate that.
You do have one point where you misunderstood the article. It was actually Myra's adopted father who sexually abused her. So, the abuse in her case happened after the adoption.
Your observations though about feeling unwanted and neglected certainly were a prominent theme in the article.
Myra's family didn't reveal to her that she was adopted (though she suspected that fact long before her parents told her). It might not be an angle you want to pursue, but that did make me wonder if the way that children process adoption is affected at all by when and how they are told they were adopted. I wonder if there are studies expressing an opinion about how to best tell a child about their adoption.