Summary
Contents
Subject index
Although most mental health and behavioral health professionals have encountered adoption triad members—birth parents, adoptive parents, and adopted persons—in their clinical practice, the vast majority have had no formal or informal training on adoption issues. The Handbook of Adoption is the first text designed for mental health practitioners to specifically address the many dimensions of adoption-related issues which can and do affect adoption triad members, specifically in the United States.
Why Has the Mental Health Community Been Silent onAdoption Issues?
Why Has the Mental Health Community Been Silent onAdoption Issues?
For much of the mid-20th century, the process of adoption was shrouded insecrecy, largely based on the assumption of shameful pregnancies and“illegitimate” births. The professed intent of the secrecy was theprotection of all those involved in what came to be seen as a privatetransaction. For detailed reviews of the history of adoption in the UnitedStates, see Chapters 2 and 3 inthis volume as well as the comprehensive work of Holt (1992), Wegar (1997),O'Brien and Zamostny (2003), and Zamostny, O'Brien, Baden, andWiley (2003). As societal values changed during the 1980s and 1990s, much of thehistoric secrecy began to be stripped away. Adoption has now become a topic ...
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