‘Adoptees as Parents”
For Psychoanalytic Inquiry
Psychoanalytic Inquiry( PI ) retains distinction in the world of clinical publishing as a genuinely monographic journal. By dedicating each issue to a single topic, PI achieves a depth of coverage and diversity of perspective unique to the journal format. By virtue of the topical focus of each issue, it functions as a monograph series covering the most timely issues – theoretical, clinical, developmental , and institutional – before the field.
“I felt an incredible amount of guilt toward my adoptive mother during this time. I felt guilty for getting pregnant so easily, and guilty that I could breast-feed. I had carried a lot of her feelings for many years. I knew that I had to start separating them and it was OK for me to be happy. I was allowed. I began to see that I loved my adoptive parents, and I knew that in their own way they truly loved and wanted the best for me.
However, this blood, this genetic connection I had with my baby, this feeling of intuition that I had around my son, a feeling of just knowing him, was something I had never experienced before. I felt motherless in the sense that I wasn’t able to talk to my adoptive mother about pregnancy or birth or breast-feeding, since she really didn’t have any experience in those areas. I also felt that when I tried to talk to my birth mother about pregnancy and my birth, she chose to shut down, because it was too painful for her. She had buried my birth story for many years and didn’t want to go back there.”
Read “Adoptees as Parents” by Zara Phillips.
Zara has also had articles published in Adoption Today. She has contributed chapters to “Chosen: Living with Adoption”
