Rating: 
Summary: Relief
Review: I find it hard to describe the impact that Ms. Lifton's book has had on me. I spent many nights crying and furiously scribbling in my journal because of the emotional tidal waves that would consume me as I read Journey of the Adopted Self. I read this book seven years after my reunion with my birthparents, and I only wish I had known about it back then. I would very much recommend this book to anyone who has been adopted, as it will help to fit together the jagged pieces of your heart and mind. I can only say "thank you" to Ms. Lifton for writing her insightful and compassionate books; Journey of the Adopted Self is one of the reasons that I am a functional human being today.
Rating: 
Summary: This is not everyone's experience
Review: I have just begun reading some books about adoption in an effort to better understand myself. I just finished Being Adopted: The Lifelong Search for Self which is much better than this book. I liked the other book because it was much less biased. It first outlines each normal life stage any individual goes through and then discusses some possible issues for the adopted person versus a person who was raised by their natural parents. I felt Being Adopted took in to consideration how different people react differently. In the book by Betty Jean Lifton, she seems to assume we are all not feeling "real" ever. For goodness sake, I am not saying the adoption process didn't affect my life - but guess what we can't change it. Not matter how much we do or learn will never change what happened. If we spend our whole life trying to undo or redo those initial moments of our life, we will waste all the time we have to walk this earth and hopefully leave it better than we found it. I must feel I often felt like saying to author - Get Over IT!
Rating:
Summary: This is not everyone's experience
Review: I have read MANY books on adoption and the impact it has on the triad. Some were good, some were bad, some were REALLY bad. From the moment I picked up this book, I could not put it down. Finally, a book that describes me and the way I feel! It is no longer a mystery as to why I am the way I am! This book is a MUST READ for all members of the adoption triad. I had many "light bulb moments" while reading this book and it has helped me immensely to know that I am not the only adoptee out there thinking and feeling this way. It has also helped me better understand my birth mother and how her experience has affected her. Thank you Betty Jean Lifton for writing this book. It has changed my way of thinking and changed my life for the better!
Rating:
Summary: A MUST READ for all members of the adoption triad
Review: I have read MANY books on adoption and the impact it has on the triad. Some were good, some were bad, some were REALLY bad. From the moment I picked up this book, I could not put it down. Finally, a book that describes me and the way I feel! It is no longer a mystery as to why I am the way I am! This book is a MUST READ for all members of the adoption triad. I had many "light bulb moments" while reading this book and it has helped me immensely to know that I am not the only adoptee out there thinking and feeling this way. It has also helped me better understand my birth mother and how her experience has affected her. Thank you Betty Jean Lifton for writing this book. It has changed my way of thinking and changed my life for the better!
Rating:
Summary: Absolute Truth About Adoption
Review: In "Journey of the Adopted Self," Betty Jean Lifton writes an amazingly comprehensive account of what it means to be adopted. This book is my most dependable reference in traversing the uneven ground of reunion with my relinquished daughter. BJ Lifton has helped sensitize me to the special challenges associated with having been relinquished and adopted. Her contribution has been invaluable to me. I have recommended this book to many others and made a gift of this book to many more.
Rating:
Summary: A Riveting Read - I couldn't put it down!
Review: Journey of the Adopted Self is a book that helped to intellectualize many of the issues I have felt as an adoptee. Dr. Lifton has put together a book that focuses neither on the negative or the positive aspects of search, reunion, and just being an adoptee. Rather, it focuses on both. I felt the pain of the individuals in her book who experienced unfulfilling reunions and I felt the joy when she told the stories of satisfying yet complex reunions. Dr. Betty Jean Lifton has credibility as an adoptee herself, and her work in the field of adoption is to be appreciated and revered. Her material has been a catalyst for me, sparking a furious search for additional information on my roots. Thank you BJ!
Rating:
Summary: Insightful and inspiring, a book you can't put down!
Review: Journey of the Adopted Self is truly an inspiring book that spoke not only to me the adult, but also me the child. I am an adoptee who didn't think that adoption affected my overall self until I began to read about *me* between the pages of this book. Identifying with and understanding the psyche of a baby separated from its mother early, I realized that I had always wanted to be cradled when things were difficult in life, that I always wanted to meet someone who could take care of me but was afraid of rejection, and my "natural" instinct to distance my adoptive mother from me may have been my reaction to being separated at birth from my natural mother. This book also described my adoptive brother who seems "stuck" in his evolving into an adult. As I have begun a reunion with my birthmother, my adoptive mother and I have become closer, and with the help of this book, I've been able to be exposed to other points of view objectively instead of just reacting to situations. I truly feel that this is a book that will help adoptees not only cope with the issues of being adopted, but will help heal the invisible scars on our hearts
Rating:
Summary: The best adoption book i have read
Review: Reading this book was like having my own feelings put down on paper for me. It made my feelings and thoughts understandable. This book is a wealth of knowledge.
Rating: 
Summary: Adoptee heritage: deliberately & forcibly kept secret
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: An in depth explination for what we(adoptees) can't explain
Review: This book by Betty Jean Lifton is an eye opening experiance for all that may read it. Things became clear to me after reading this book. I have read many books on the subject of adoption and this is the only one that has been the most apealing and helpful to me as an adoptee. Yet my adoptive mother has also read it and thought it was an exceptional book. I could not really explian how I felt or why till I read "Journy of the Adoptive Self." People don't think a book could have so much impact on a sixteen year old. But, this book was my life saver when I hit rock bottom. So, I highly recomend this book to adoptees, adoptive parents and birth parents of all ages. Give it a chance you will see what I am talking about.
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