title: On being told of adoption.
abstract: Clinical data from the analyses of three adoptees document the deleterious effect of telling children under three years of age about their adoptive status. The knowledge, as well as the experiences, of being an adoptee imposes the need for defensive reactions which affect developmental process, cognitive function, object relationships, and fantasy life.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000300:Adoption; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001010:Anxiety, Separation / Q000209:etiology; D001364:Awareness; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D003071:Cognition; D003858:Dependency, Psychological; D005201:Fantasy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009769:Object Attachment; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D012649:Self Concept