Journey of the Adopted Self: A Search for Wholeness

"This is the first adoption book I have read - long overdue. I couldn't put it down. It charts the journey of adoptee through instantly recognisable stages, providing descriptions of different people's experiences and bringing to light a complex and sometimes painful world. This book has been another step on my own journey and has helped me to understand a lot of the experiences and emotions I have had during childhood, search and reunion. It has also helped me to start preparing to meet my father. If you are an adoptee, an adoptive or a birth parent, read it!"
~ Written on 2008-07-12

"I have searched and found. thankyou jan for encouraging me if it weren't for you i would not have found BJT. I feel a kind of belonging in my loneliness knowing what i have read who i am becoming, i'm still lonely in a crowded room but now i have felt anothers empathy for me that is more than i ever hoped for. mine is a happier ending. BEWARE THIS IS A JOURNEY NOT TO BE TAKEN ALONE OR WITHOUT ADVICE. "it's not what you find it's THAT you find"."
~ Written on 2000-07-06

"Some may argue that there is nothing "unwhole" about adoptees. Then again, some people are wildly outraged by adoptees searching - those people usually threatened themselves by the notion for some personal reason. As an adoptee who had a positive adoptive experience I nonetheless felt the need to search. My parents helped me and the experience ultimately did make me feel more "whole", although it was not entirely positive. Lifton writes beautifully and incorporates poetry, folklore and psychology into her tale of the adoptee experience. I don't agree with the emphasis on in-utero and birthing experiences as forming later attitudes, and I also don't think open adoption is for everyone, but I do think this is a wonderful, worthwhile book all people touched by adoption should read."
~ Written on 1999-07-04

"Betty Jean Lifton has written a graceful and useful narrative of what it feels like to be an adopted adult under the sealed records system that has prevailed in the US for the past 60 or so years.This book has helped countless adoptees understand themsleves a little better, and it has also enlightened adoptive parents, and birthmothers like myself.

Everything Betty Jean Lifton writes on this subject is worth reading, and discussing, and in many cases, taking to heart. She is a masterful writer of prose, and her psychological insights often ring true.

This is THE basic adoption reform book--along with BJ's earlier "Lost And Found". All the rest take off from here. I would especially recomend BJ's books to birthmothers in search or in reunion seeking for insight into the mind and soul of the adoptee."
~ Written on 1999-06-28

"As an adoptive mother, this book was very helpful as I tried to help my daughter in her search for self. It gave words to feelings that were very difficult for all of us to understand. I feel very fortunate to have some idea, at least, of what she is dealing with and trying to work through. It feels good to be a part of the process in whatever way I can to support her, and this book has enabled us to once again talk about what is important."
~ Written on 1999-04-23