title: The princess has to die: representing rupture and grief in the narrative of adoption.
abstract: The search for a coherent account of one's life and one's origin may become a particularly powerful organizer of fantasy and memory, affect and conflict, self and object representation in adopted children. Yet relinquishment, unacknowledged affects, and inaccessible history create a rupture in the fabric of that narrative. Clinical material is presented to illustrate the impact such disruptions may have on the personal narrative and the developing selfhood of the child, with a particular focus on the impact of inhibited mourning. The evolving play showed that grieving facilitated representation of losses and discontinuities and made possible a more integrated representation of the self.
authors.affiliation: New York Psychoanalytic Institute and Berkshire Psychoanalytic Institute, USA.
authors.forename: Josephine L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Wright
mesh_terms: D000300:Adoption / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D005201:Fantasy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D007246:Infertility / Q000523:psychology; D033262:Narration; D009769:Object Attachment; D010553:Personality Development; D010989:Play Therapy; D011573:Psychoanalytic Interpretation; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D012649:Self Concept; D014167:Transference, Psychology