Abstract

There are many myths and tales telling of the often impressive destiny of adopted children who seem to benefit from new alliances. In clinic we often hear other stories where abandonment anxiety and narcissistic wounds are predominant.
The adopted child endures two symbolic processes founding his singular subjectivity: the original narcissistic contract which links him to his original group and ensures the transmission of psychical life; the secondary narcissistic contract which fits and involves him into the new family filiation. So that adoption does not become exile, the establishment of a new alliance and the understanding between the new psychic life and the family as well as the social and cultural environment he is entering, are required. However, some families are suffering and do not appear to be able to undertake the mixing and elaborative work necessary for each and everyone’s psychic life. Only a groupal family work will enable us to access the constitutive formations at stake in the family links: that’s where Psychoanalytic Family Therapy comes in.

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