The Primal Wound: Understanding the Adopted Child is a book by American author Nancy Verrier published in 1993. The book posits that there is a "primal wound" that develops when a mother and child are separated by adoption shortly after childbirth. It describes the mother and child as having a vital connected relationship which is physical, psychological and physiological, and examines the effects of disrupting such bonds.
The primary focus of the book is on the effects of adoption on the adoptee. A central theme is the assertion that all adoptees, even those adopted at birth, will retain memories of the separation from their birth mothers, and that regardless of the way the adoption is presented and handled by adoptive parents, these memories will have profound effects on the emotional and psychological well-being of the child and adult adoptee.
The book delves into the experiences of adoptees, emphasizing that the effects of adoption persist throughout their lives. Verrier asserts that even those adopted at birth carry within them memories of their separation from their birth mothers. These memories, regardless of how the adoption is presented or handled by adoptive parents, exert profound influence on the emotional and psychological well-being of the child, continuing into adulthood.
Verrier's work highlights the significance of recognizing and addressing the complex emotional landscape of adopted individuals. By understanding the primal wound and its lasting impact, society can better support and empower adoptees as they navigate their unique life journeys. Moreover, the book encourages a holistic perspective on adoption, fostering compassion and empathy for all parties involved, including birth parents who also experience the effects of separation.
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from the biological parents to the adoptive parents.
Bastard Nation is a North American adult adoptee political advocacy and support organization. It was founded in 1996 by denizens of the Usenet newsgroup alt.adoption Shea Grimm, Damsel Plum, Marley Greiner and Lainie Petersen. The original intent of the organization was to support adult adoptees in gaining access to their original birth certificates as a civil right, rather than as a vehicle for facilitating a search, which had been the aim of prior open records organizations. It is also distinguished from search-and-reconnection focused organizations in that it supports the full spectrum of the adult adoptee experience, including adoptees who do not wish to search and adoptees whose reconnections were a bad experience.
The international adoption of South Korean children was at first started as a result of a large number of orphaned mixed children from the Korean War after 1953, but later included orphaned Korean children. Religious organizations in the United States, Australia, and many Western European nations slowly developed into the apparatus that sustained international adoption as a socially integrated system. This system, however, is essentially gone as of 2020. The number of children given for adoption is lower than in comparable OECD countries of a similar size, the majority of adoptees are adopted by South Korean families, and the number of international adoptees is at a historical low.
Closed adoption is a process by which an infant is adopted by another family, and the record of the biological parent(s) is kept sealed. Often, the biological father is not recorded—even on the original birth certificate. An adoption of an older child who already knows their biological parent(s) cannot be made closed or secret. This used to be the most traditional and popular type of adoption, peaking in the decades of the post-World War II Baby Scoop Era. It still exists today, but it exists alongside the practice of open adoption. The sealed records effectively prevent the adoptee and the biological parents from finding, or even knowing anything about each other. However, the emergence of non-profit organizations and private companies to assist individuals with their sealed records has been effective in helping people who want to connect with biological relatives to do so.
Disruption is ending an adoption. While technically an adoption is disrupted only when it is abandoned by the adopting parent or parents before it is legally completed, in practice the term is used for all adoptions that are ended. It is usually initiated by the parents via a court petition, much like a divorce, to which it is analogous.
More adoptions occur in California each year than any other state. There is domestic adoption, international adoption, step parent adoption and adult adoption.
In the United States, adoption is the process of creating a legal parent-child relationship between a child and a parent who was not automatically recognized as the child's parent at birth.
Open adoption is a form of adoption in which the biological and adoptive families have access to varying degrees of each other's personal information and have an option of contact. While open adoption is a relatively new phenomenon in the west, it has been a traditional practice in many Asian societies, especially in South Asia, for many centuries. In Hindu society, for example, it is relatively common for a childless couple to adopt the second or later son of the husband's brother when the childless couple has limited hope of producing their own child.
Interracial adoption refers to the act of placing a child of one racial or ethnic group with adoptive parents of another racial or ethnic group.
Genealogical bewilderment is a term referring to potential identity problems that could be experienced by a child who was either fostered, adopted, or conceived via an assisted reproductive technology procedure such as surrogacy or gamete donation.
Maternal deprivation is a scientific term summarising the early work of psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby on the effects of separating infants and young children from their mother. Although the effect of loss of the mother on the developing child had been considered earlier by Freud and other theorists, Bowlby's work on delinquent and affectionless children and the effects of hospital and institutional care led to his being commissioned to write the World Health Organization's report on the mental health of homeless children in post-war Europe whilst he was head of the Department for Children and Parents at the Tavistock Clinic in London after World War II. The result was the monograph Maternal Care and Mental Health published in 1951, which sets out the maternal deprivation hypothesis.
The language of adoption is changing and evolving, and since the 1970s has been a controversial issue tied closely to adoption reform efforts. The controversy arises over the use of terms which, while designed to be more appealing or less offensive to some persons affected by adoption, may simultaneously cause offense or insult to others. This controversy illustrates the problems in adoption, as well as the fact that coining new words and phrases to describe ancient social practices will not necessarily alter the feelings and experiences of those affected by them. Two of the contrasting sets of terms are commonly referred to as positive adoption language (PAL), and honest adoption language (HAL).
The Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (HAMA) was enacted in India in 1956 as part of the Hindu Code Bills. The other legislations enacted during this time include the Hindu Marriage Act (1955), the Hindu Succession Act (1956), and the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act (1956). All of these acts were put forth under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru, and were meant to codify and standardise the current Hindu legal tradition. The Adoptions and Maintenance Act of 1956 dealt specifically with the legal process of adopting children by a Hindu adult, and with the legal obligations of a Hindu to provide "maintenance" to various family members including their wife or parents, and in-laws.
Adoption in France is codified in the French Civil Code in two distinct forms: simple adoption and plenary adoption.
Effects of adoption on the birth mother include stigma and other psychological effects a woman experiences when she places her child for adoption.
"Gotcha Day" is a term for the anniversary of the day on which a person or a pet joins a family by adoption. It is also called "Homecoming Day", "Family Day", or "Adoption Day", although the date may be different from date on which the legal adoption becomes final. Gotcha Day is often associated with annual rituals or celebrations, much like a birthday. The tradition, and especially the word gotcha, is considered offensive by some adoptees.
Concerned United Birthparents, Inc. (CUB), a non-profit organization established in 1976, is one of two primary nationwide organizations offering support to the biological parents of adopted people in the United States. The organization is credited with the creation of the term "birthparent."
Adoption in the Philippines is a process of granting social, emotional and legal family and kinship membership to an individual from the Philippines, usually a child. It involves a transfer of parental rights and obligations and provides family membership. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) defines adoption as a "socio-legal process of giving a permanent family to a child whose parents have voluntarily or involuntarily given up their parental rights."
Research into relative outcomes of parenting by biological and adoptive parents has produced a variety of results. When socioeconomic differences between two-biological-parent and two-adoptive-parent households are controlled for, the two types of families tend to invest a similar amount of resources. A 20-year longitudinal study of 245 adoptees placed in the first few months of life that compared the children's cognitive abilities with those of their birth and adoptive parents found that before age 5, the adoptees' cognitive skills correlated more with those in their adoptive families, but as the adoptees matured, their cognitive skills, including verbal ability, became more like those of their biological parents; thus, the study concluded that "environmental transmission from parent to offspring has little effect on later cognitive ability." Adopted siblings have, on average, an IQ score 4.4 points higher than the siblings who are reared by their biological parents and 3.18 point increase for half-siblings reared by their biological parents.
Post-adoption depression is shown though symptoms of depression in the adoptive mother or father, generally seen from one month after adoption, and is experienced by anywhere from 10% to 32% of adoptive parents. The symptoms of post-adoption depression are common to symptoms of depression, and include changes in sleeping pattern and appetite, feelings of hopelessness, fatigue, problems with concentration and restlessness, as well as suicidal thoughts. These symptoms are also similar to those of postpartum depression, which is a related syndrome. Postpartum depression, however, involves hormonal changes in pregnant woman, which are not present in women suffering from post-adoption depression. Despite this difference, there are still significant changes that new parents go through, even when the child is not biologically their own. These changes can have significant impacts on mental health. Post-adoption depression can also negatively impact the child.
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