....and the Western tendency to disparage fantasy and image as some kind of "only," this book invites the reader to imagine psychological health in terms of how autonomous and detailed we allow the imaginal beings of the "inner" world to become as they arise from their unconscious roots and dance on the psychological stage with the unafraid observer.

As Dr. Watkins points out, developmental theories in psychology have tended to do just the opposite: to see internal dialogues with "imaginary" characters as primitive or childish or somehow preliminary to the adult goal of rational discourse with our fellow human beings. Drawing examples from art and literature and the lives of those who create them, the author illustrates for us the potential richness and vitality to be gained--on both sides!--through a dialogical approach to these inner figures when they arise and display their astonishing aliveness.

In theoretical terms, this approach supplements and expands our social and developmental notions. Operating "inwardly" or "outwardly," psyche is an exquisitely dialogical process.

For clinicians and nonclinicians alike, the author's interpretation of what we fear from unbridled fantasy--psychotic states, hallucinations, multiple personality, and the like--as impoverished and dissociated disturbances rather than enlivened conversations with liberated faces and voices will encourage further exploration of the imaginal (as opposed to "imaginary," which for most means "unreal"). If anything, it is the repression and disavowal of the imaginal that supports various states of pathological possession.

If the sudden guests who summon our attention subvert the rigidity of our well-developed ego atop the air-conditioned skyscraper of personality, they simultaneously enrich the flexible potentialities of a humbler and more dialogical kind of consciousness.

...and image," this handy guide introduces the reader to the realm of the imaginal psyche, where personifications surface from the unconscious to greet and question those who show them hospitality.

Without slipping into the archetypalist tendency to deify image or confuse it with archetype, the author makes good use of her wisdom and clarity to bring us a sense of dialoging with psyche's autonomous imaginal promptings. Are the figures that confront us in the "waking dream" of reverie "only" imagination? Are they really products of the conscious ego? Or are they supernatural voices, otherworldly faces? Perhaps none of these so much as charged personifications who demand to be taken seriously and loaned the respect due any form of creative sentience.

It was Freud who outraged us with his psychological notion that we are not necessarily masters in our own "inner" house. Jung took this a step further by creating tools with which to engage these real figures (for the psychological is THE reality through which we engage our worlds) via dreamwork and fantasy and what he called active imagination. Dr. Watkins opens this depth-psychological tradition of inquiry into an attentive space in which individuation--or, as she likes to say, liberation--is not a colonial endeavor to conquer lost territory or dredge psychic wreckage to the surface of the mind, but a way of humbly participating as receptive partners in the delicate work of soulmaking, of befriending the Ones who inhabit the same psyche we do...a psyche not bounded by brain or body.

For psyche is not in us; we are in it, and invited, should we listen with ears sensitized by Dr. Watkins' suggestions and examples, to a mutuality of enrichment in which we and the imaginal get to know one another.

Well, I had gotten through almost half of the book and was about to stop reading it when it started to get better. The first half was a bunch of detailed psychological text book information that, for the most part, I did not agree with or care about- not much fact- just opinions. The second part did save it giving detailed examples and stories of real people and their adopted children: how to communicate to the children, how children communicate about their adoption, feelings of adoptees and adoptive parents, what children might be concerned about at different ages, etc. I would definitely say that it is a good book to refer to when communicating to young children.

In my opinion, you can't read this book too early. As a matter of fact, the earlier the better.

The first thing I realized in reading this book is how young the children are/can be when they start talking and asking questions about their adoption. They're beginning around the age of three in many cases! Our son is 15 months old now and I thought I'd have several years to read this book when in reality I need to be introducing him to the word "adoption" and other phrases about our adopting him now so that he's familiar with the words by the time he can understand them.

The book gives numerous stories of children and how they ask questions and talk about their adoption. What things are important to them to know. How they talk to their friends about adoption. How we as parents need to be truthful right from the very beginning. Explaining why the parents look different from the child. Talking about their tummy-mommy and who she is and why she let someone else adopt him/her. And how the children like to act out the day their parents first saw them (hundreds of times!) and how to deal with that when the child wants to alter the story.

It also addresses the issue of parents who decide not to tell their children about adoption.

This book will give adoptive parents ideas on how to talk (what to say exactly) to their children when they ask some difficult questions. Kids are smart! They ask thorough questions about their adoption and many times they'll ask the questions years before we think they will.

This book has helped me to prepare for my son's questions, whenever they come, and has helped me to see that it's okay to be "freaked out" at the idea of talking to him about it. It's put my mind at ease because now I have a better sense of what to say and how to say it. When to say it is up to your child. We don't have a lot of choice in the matter. When they want to know, they want to know! Or they may think we're hiding something bad from them. This book will help you along the path of discussion and prepare you for some questions and feelings your adopted child may have.

Excellent book for all adoption situations!

As an adoptive parent, I have read lots of material about how to talk about adoption with my child. It was all well and good to practice what I was going to say, but the other books didn't prepare me for my son's reactions and that's where this book comes in. It helps you anticipate your child's questions and reactions to what YOU say at different ages in his or her development. Also to understand where these sometimes seemingly bizarre things are coming from.