Troubling Adoption : Heartbreak and Hope

The permanent removal of children from their families of origin to place with another family for adoption is coming under greater critical scrutiny across the world. Policy debates and media discourse focus on the benefits of providing children with stable homes but can obscure the emotional complexities and lived realities of adoption for all those involved.

In Troubling Adoption, Cath Lambert challenges readers to engage with alternative narratives, shifting away from dominant portrayals of adoption as an overwhelmingly positive experience to consider the complexities, contradictions and profound griefs that are often involved. Drawing on original collaborative research with creative and social work professionals, as well as parents whose children have been taken from them for adoption, Lambert reveals how trauma-informed and creative approaches can articulate emotional and embodied knowledges that are often left unspoken or unheard.

Blending critique with fresh empirical insight, the book makes a powerful case for change in adoption policy and practice, offering ways forward for more compassionate, inclusive and reflective child welfare practices.

Cath Lambert is Reader in Sociology at the University of Warwick and is an adoptive parent.