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Joining Families: the adopted child, the internal group, and the process of assimilation

Abstract

In this paper I describe how the inner world of the late-adopted child is peopled with a pre-existing group of birth parents and previous carers. The task of adoptive parents is to assimilate this previously internalised group into the adoptive family. I explore some of the difficulties that can interfere with this assimilation and link it with Oedipal issues and aspects of the Oedipus myth

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