Supervising Spoiled Selfhood
Inquiry and Interpretation in the History of Modern American Child Adoption
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3924471 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ellen Herman (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 158-179 |
| Publication date | 2007-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Osiris (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0369-7827 • E-ISSN: 1933-8287 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/521747 |
| OpenAlex | W2056234579 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 12 |
This article uses child adoption to explore the science and the politics of selfhood in modern U.S. history, especially forms of spoiled selfhood associated with difference and deviance. In particular, it traces the debate about whether and how parents should inform children of their adoptive status. Why was “telling” both imperative and troublesome? What theories about normal and abnormal identity and belonging were implicated in the practice? The case of the adopted self suggests why child development and family life became the subjects of ambitious legal intervention, professional management, and research in the human sciences during the twentieth century. Normalization was a favored governmental activity that also exposed a central tension between liberalism, on the one hand, and conceptions of nature at odds with it, on the other
Epistemology · Linguistics · Psychoanalysis · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Medical History and Research · Philosophy · Psychology
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,08 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2014 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |