ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I want to consider the impact of early trauma and neglect on one child’s developing mind, which affected her learning, speech and interaction with others, and inhibited her relationship with her adopted family. In the clinical work to be described, I hope to show how psychotherapy provides a specifi c way of ‘seeing the child’ in a context of trauma and damage. I suggest that the diffi culties of being aware of or acknowledging such trauma and damage can signifi cantly interfere with the attachment process between adopted child and adoptive parents.
