A Psycho-social Exploration of Trans-racial Adoptive Subjectivity Cecilia Love This thesis is submitted to Cardiff University in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Social Work Doctorate Cardiff University Abstract The aim of this thesis is to convey a psycho-social and experiential understanding of the lived experience of trans-racial adoption. As a woman that was adopted as a baby from Malaysia by Caucasian parents during the 1970s, the personal experience of the phenomenon of trans-racial adoption has been integral to the theoretical foundations and overall research approach of this study. The primary aim of this study has been one that has sought to deepen understanding of the affective dimensions involved in being a trans-racially adoptive family member from both the perspective of the adoptive mother and the adoptee. The concept of trans-racial adoptive subjectivity is informed by phenomenological and psychoanalytic thinking and assumes an embodied subject that is embedded in a relational and material world. The analytical focus therefore prioritises understanding the historical, social and political processes that engage the body in particular ways that we can understand as being trans-racially adopted. The research framework assumes a psycho-social methodological framework that has prioritised depth of understanding experience. Six sets of trans-racially adopted adults and their adoptive mothers were engaged where each family members was interviewed over a period of six months, four times each. Influenced by the relational psychoanalytic tradition, the notion of inter-subjectivity was central to the methodological process. The research interview encounters therefore assumed a two person psychology where the feelings I experienced as the researcher were considered as important forms of research data. An inter-subjective dialogue enabled the method to go beyond purely the discursive and recognise the complex layers of unconscious forms of defence that are understood as being the multi-dimensions of experience. The empirical chapters have been presented in three separate analytical chapters entitled: Race, Class and Loss. In theorising an embodied subject, I have emphasised in this interpretation of trans-racial adoptive experience the inter-connection between these three analytical categories. That whilst presented as separate categories, the presentation of the experience in each empirical chapter has aimed to demonstrate the fluidity involved in the process of being trans-racially adopted. Acknowledgements I would like to sincerely thank all the mothers and their children for the time they gave in order to contribute to this project. I will always remember what we shared during the interview time we had together. I am very grateful to all the academic staff in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University for making it such a welcoming, intellectually vibrant and peaceful place to write a thesis. I thank my supervisors Professor Valerie Walkerdine and Professor Emma Renold for their invaluable time and guidance. Thanks also goes to the Economic Social Research Council for the funding for the study. My final acknowledgment of thanks goes to my family, friends and my beautiful daughter Lauren, for all your support during the writing of this thesis. Table of Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. i Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………………………………………ii CHAPTER ONE: THESIS INTRODUCTION 1.1 Chapter Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………….1 1.2 Reclaiming the trans-racial adoptive identity ……………………………………………………….1 1.3 Trans-racial adoption policy context ……………………………………………………………………3 1.4 Trans-racial adoption research context ………………………………………………………………..5 1.5 Embodying trans-racial adoption …………………………………………………………………………5 1.6 Thesis structure ………………………………………………………………………………………………….7 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Chapter Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………..10 2.2 The politics of trans-racial adoption …………………………………………………………………..10 2.3 Domestic trans-racial adoption …………………………………………………………………………. 11 2.4 International adoption ………………………………………………………………………………………18 2.5 Contemporary trans-racial adoption campaign …………………………………………………..20 2.6 The research evidence ………………………………………………………………………………………21 2.7 Outcome based research evidence ……………………………………………………………………25 2.8 Racial/Ethnic identity research evidence ………………………………………………………….28 2.9 Chapter conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………………..34 CHAPTER THREE: THEORY OF THE SUBJECT 3.1 Chapter introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………37 3.2 The ‘fixity’ of social identity: Beyond the Cartesian subject ………………………………….38 3.3 Identity and the Western diaspora ……………………………………………………………………..40 3.4 The reflexivity of the body …………………………………………………………………………………43 3.5 The inter-subjective dynamics of experience ………………………………………………………48 3.6 Infant experience and the life course …………………………………………………………………49 3.7 Feeling through skin …………………………………………………………………………………………53 3.8 Chapter conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………….56 CHAPTER FOUR: THE EMERGENCE OF TRANS-RACIAL ADOPTIVE SUBJECTIVITY 4.1 Chapter introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………….58 4.2 The historicisation of race …………………………………………………………………………………59. 4.2.1 The great chain of ‘racialisation’ ……………………………………………………………………. 60 4.2.2 Darwin and scientific racism …………………………………………………………………………..62 4.2.3 The primitive and the civilized ………………………………………………………………………64 4.2.4 Race coded as culture ……………………………………………………………………………………67 4.3 The naturalness of family …………………………………………………………………………………69 4.3.1 Bastardy ………………………………………………………………………………………………………70 4.3.2 The concept of adoption: matching, completeness and eugenics ………………………72 4.3.3 Welfare movements ………………………………………………………………………………………..77 4.3.4 Interracial intimacy ……………………………………………………………………………………….78 4.4 Chapter conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………………..80 CHAPTER FIVE: EXPLORING TRANS-RACIAL ADOPTIVE EXPERIENCE: A PSYCHO- SOCIAL METHOD 5.1 Chapter introduction …………………………………………………………………………………….82 5.2 Contextualisation of a method ………………………………………………………………………..83 5.3 A relational and phenomenological method …………………………………………………….88 5.4 Methodologically approaching the trans-racially adoptive family………………………91 5.5 Methodological framework………………………………………………………………………………94 5.6 Recruitment strategy ………………………………………………………………………………………95 5.7 Research sample ……………………………………………………………………………………………..95 5,8 Interview technique ……………………………………………………………………………………….96 5.9 Data analysis: An inter-subjective approach……………………………………………………104 5.9.1 Ethical framework ……………………………………………………………………………………….109 5.9.2 Chapter conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………114 CHAPTER SIX: PROCESSES OF ‘RACE’ 6.1 Chapter introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………….115 6.2 Spatial contexts and the intensity of ‘race’ ………………………………………………………..117 6.3 Cultural misreading’s of the body and belonging in place …………………………………..126 6.4 Racism and differentiation ……………………………………………………………………………....130 6.5 The power of the skin ……………………………………………………………………………………..136 6.6 Sexualisation and racialized bodies …………………………………………………………………139 6.7 Responding to processes of racialization ………………………………………………………….146 6.8 Chapter conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………………150 CHAPTER SEVEN: THE DYNAMICS OF ‘CLASS’ IN TRANS-RACIAL ADOPTION 7.1 Chapter introduction …………………………………………………………………………………..152 7.2 The disruption of community ………………………………………………………………………152 7.3 Class origins and the silent mother of ethnicity …………………………………………….165 7.4 Class expectations and emotional needs ………………………………………………………..170 7.5 Chapter conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………..176 CHAPTER EIGHT: DIMENSIONS OF LOSS IN TRANS-RACIAL ADOPTIVE EXPERIENCE 8.1 Chapter introduction ……………………………………………………………………………179 8.2 Experiencing ‘being mixed’ …………………………………………………………………..180 8.3 Parental mixing ……………………………………………………………………………………186 8.4 Coming home ……………………………………………………………………………………….191 8.6 Chapter conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………….208 CHAPTER NINE: THESIS CONCLUSION 9.1 Chapter Introduction …………………………………………………………………………….209 9.2 The situation of the body ……………………………………………………………………….211 9.3 Hybrid lives: Communicating difference through skin ……………………………..212 9.4 Moving beyond the discursive in method ………………………………………………. 217 9.5 Redefining concepts: The embodiment of ‘race’, ‘class’ and ‘loss’ in trans-racial adoptive experience…………………………………………………………………………………….219 Chapter 1: An introduction to the trans-racially adopted family 1.1 Chapter Introduction Invariably, the subject matter of a doctoral thesis is influenced by personal histories, and this study is no exception. Internationally adopted as a baby from Malaysia by Caucasian parents, I make explicit from the outset of this thesis how my own lived experience of the substantive topic, my status as a social worker, an academic and a mother have all consciously and unconsciously influenced the epistemological and methodological dimensions of the study. Prior to engaging with the substantive topic of this thesis, I had never encountered the term ‘transracial adoptee’, so had never known myself under this term. My adoptive mother and father are the only parents I have ever physically known and remember. The resounding silence on issues of adoption and race sharply contrasts the culture of openness that permeates the dynamics of contemporary adoption governance today (Curtis & Pearson, 2010; Muller & Perry, 2001). Informed by these personal insights, the primary