ABSTRACT
This theme was true for four of the six participants in that their discussions featured the lack or loss of their mothers. Edouine, Tanya, and Chantel had been left by their mothers at birth and had had limited, often negative, contact with their mothers. Chantel's descriptions of her life featured an acute awareness of rejection: by her birth mother, her biological father, and her foster mother. Of these rejections, it seemed Chantel struggled most to understand her biological mother's actions and to accept them in light of her mother's mental illness. These participants' comments suggest that they have used their mothers in defining their own identities. As they asserted that they were different, and had sought this difference, they simultaneously acknowledged their mothers' influence. The participants described their mothers as having exerted significant influence on their lives; in particular, the effects of their mothers' absences or failings had been felt acutely.
