Vincent Cornalba: The silent adoption

The silent adoption entails a contract between several parties: the foster child, the family social worker, the institution, and the parents. This adoption arises partly from the need for the child to distance him or herself from guilty feelings about the parent-murder he thinks he has committed, and partly from the echo effect that re-actualizes a wound that has been poorly elaborated or unelaborated in the adult. The narcissistic dimension is prevalent here.

Adolescence, 2016, 34, 4, 717-731.