Adoption & Loss: The Hidden Grief Revised edition

by Evelyn Burns Robinson

What becomes of women who give up their children for adoption? Why do so many adopted people feel such a strong desire to seek out their families of origin? In what ways are families with adopted children different from other families? This book by Evelyn Robinson provides the answers to these questions and many others.

240 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2000

Reviews

[Linda L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evelyn Burns Robinson has written an excellent description of the effects of adoption loss on mothers like me who were unable to process our lifelong grief until engaging in reunion with our lost children. She is right that the need to deal with our buried grief is the unconscious impetus for seeking reunion. My experience proves her right, and though the grief was hard to go through, it has proven so healing. I'm grateful to have had Robinson's book to help me make sense of so much.

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I would give this book 4.5 stars only because I'm not sure that I share the author's view that adoption is inherently wrong. Then again, I've never had to go through an adoption of my own child. The author's story is powerful and I admire her willingness to be so open and honest about her experience. I thought the structure of the book, with the author's own story as the introduction to an enlightened discussion of the impacts of adoption on the mother and child, was an incredibly helpful framing device that gave authenticity to the narrative and impact to the description of feelings shared by people in adoptive situations. I think this book would be helpful to anyone who has been a part of adoption or who just wants to understand the experience better. It would probably be hard to read this book as an adoptive parent, but it might also be helpful.