ABSTRACT
A feeling of not belonging can arise in any adult, but seems to be especially prevalent and acute among people who have been trans-racially adopted, or who are sent away to boarding school very early in their lives. However, slavery can also produce this feeling in people, because it creates a paradox: the people belong to the owner, and yet-at the same time-people do not belong anywhere. M was trans-racially adopted. She completed her studies and moved into the adult world of work, where she acted-out her difficulties surrounding who she was and with whom she belonged by moving backwards and forwards between rival theatre companies. As the therapy continued, the difficulty concerning her sense of belonging expressed itself less in terms of color but increasingly in terms of which set of black people she might join. Her natural mother had not allowed her to belong, and her adoptive parents had failed in making her feel that she belonged.
