Deprivation and development: The predicament of an adopted adolescent in the search for identity

This chapter sets out to explore how the onset of adolescence and the inevitable changing bodily experiences resonated with the cumulative trauma of early neglect and subsequent adoption of an adolescent who began individual psychotherapy at the age of 12. The fundamental role of mother in the formation of a mental representation of the body – known as the ‘body schema’ – is a complex predicament for the adopted adolescent and particularly in Tony’s case, as both his biological and adoptive mother were also adopted. The sense of loss and search for the birth mother in the development of identity become more urgent with the anxieties of leaving home and the possibility of fi nding her in reality.