Clinical vicissitudes of adoption.

Many interacting forces shape the unique experience of adoption. The adoptive parents' fantasies, fears, and perceived lack of entitlement to the child can detrimentally influence their parenting abilities. The adopted child's often powerful need to master early abandonment may lead to maladaptive behaviors that feed the adoptive parents' fears and fantasies regarding the child's past and future. The therapist familiar with the challenges of adoption can take an empathic stance with the adoptive parents and the adoptive child that can contain their anxieties and conflicts and pave the way toward a better resolution of their individual and shared experience.