Lost & Found

by Lifton, Betty Jean

• ISBN13: 9780472033287
• ISBN10: 047203328X
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-01-06
• Publisher: Univ of Michigan Pr

Summary

"[Looks] at adoption from all sides of the triangle: adoptee, birth mother, adoptive parents . . . A provocative, comprehensive inquiry." ---Kirkus Reviews"Honest and moving." ---New York Times"Important and powerful . . . [the author] is concerned not just with adoptees but with the experience of adoptive parents and birth parents." ---Psychology Today"A moving and powerful plea for open discourse instead of secrecy among the participants in the adoption process." ---Public Welfare, American Public Welfare AssociationThe first edition of Betty Jean Lifton's Lost and Found advanced the adoption rights movement in this country in 1979, challenging many states' policies of maintaining closed birth records. For nearly three decades the book has topped recommended reading lists for those who seek to understand the effects of adoption---including adoptees, adoptive parents, birth parents, and their friends and families.This expanded and updated edition, with new material on the controversies concerning adoption, artificial insemination, and newer reproductive technologies, continues to add to the discussion on this important topic. A new preface and afterword by the author have been added, as well as a greatly expanded resources section that in addition to relevant organizations now lists useful Web sites.Betty Jean Lifton, Ph.D., is a writer, psychotherapist, and leading advocate for adoption reform. Her many books includeJourney of the Adopted Self and The King of Children, aNew York TimesNotable Book. She regularly makes appearances as a lecturer on adoption and has an adoption counseling practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and New York City.

Author Biography

Betty Jean Lifton, Ph.D., is a writer, psychotherapist, and leading advocate for adoption reform

Table of Contents

Preface: Adoptee with a Capital A	p. ix
Lost
On Being Adopted	p. 3
Messages from the Underground	p. 9
The Adoption Game	p. 12
The Chosen Baby	p. 19
The Adoptee as Mythic Hero	p. 28
The Adoptee as Double	p. 34
The Adoptee as Survivor	p. 39
Adolescent Baggage	p. 43
Good Adoptee-Bad Adoptee	p. 54
The Adoptee as Adult	p. 62
Found
Waking Up from the Great Sleep	p. 71
Who Searches?	p. 73
The Decision to Search	p. 78
Stages of the Search	p. 86
Varieties of Reunion Experience	p. 101
The Journey after Reunion	p. 139
Father-The Mini-Search	p. 152
Siblings	p. 162
The Unsuspecting Spouse	p. 168
Aftermath: The Restless Pulse	p. 172
Roots and Wings
Taking Wing	p. 177
Telling the Adoptive Parents	p. 178
The Chosen Parents	p. 183
Telling the Child	p. 188
Birth Mothers-Are They Baby Machines?	p. 207
Birth Mothers Who Search	p. 228
Adoptive Parents-Are They Baby-Sitters?	p. 256
The Right to Know	p. 263
Afterword	p. 270
Rights and Responsibilities for Everyone in the Adoption Circle	p. 283
The Adoption Resource Network	p. 289
Recommended Reading	p. 303
Acknowledgments from the Second Edition	p. 307
Notes and Sources	p. 311
Index	p. 323
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