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Summary Of In The Road To Evergreen By Rachael Stryker

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In The Road to Evergreen by Rachael Stryker is an interesting eye catching ethnography that emphasizes on the psychiatric disorder on adopted children called RAD, also known as reactive attachment disorder. Reactive attachment disorder “Describes children who are considered to be unable or unwilling to bond with parental (most often mother) figures” (Stryker 3). The reason why these particular children are unable to form a bond with their primary family is because in their past relationships formed with their birth parents, if any, have been either neglected or abused in both a physical and or mental way. So, in the end, the child is left with RAD and their new adopted families are the ones who have to get help for them in hope for a noticeable …show more content…

These different families all explained thoroughly why they decided to go to Evergreen to get their child checked out. I believe that Stryker’s central argument is to show each family as is, and to also question their decisions on attending the evergreen model as their last resort. For example, with all three of the case studies only one was able to be reunited with their family and the other two were sent to an other form a care facility “loving from a distance” (Stryker 147). This just continued to question the ability of this evergreen model as affective as clinicians make it seem when these families first arrive. If a family must love their child from another facility because he or she is unable to live in the same home as their parents then, personally I do not see it as effective at all. One as parent should be able to feel safe, happy, and love with their children, not the opposite. In almost all of the examples Stryker gave in the Road to Evergreen she displayed how almost every single parent went to the evergreen model simply because they were afraid of how their child was acting. A great example of this was in our class we watched a short video on attachment therapist with Neil Feinberg demonstrating the “holding method” and in one of the scenes he yells at the boy “How often to do you want to kill your mother?”. If a child is taken to therapy especially one like the …show more content…

Kinship is the study of relationships or kin, therefore is an important role on how a person behaves as well as form attachments with other groups i.e. new family members. A great example of this is the movie we watched in class called The Dark Matter Of Love. Masha had a very difficult time adjusting with her new family because she couldn’t understand them and the family felt overwhelmed with 3 adopted children from Russia and you could tell by the way the parents acted. But, overtime she and the other two adoptees learned to love, care ad be happy with their family. Which goes to show that once you adjust and take things at a slow and steady pace that everything turns out for the best. I also believe this goes in hand with Stryker’s central argument that if new parents had the same way of thinking like the Diaz’s, that maybe they wouldn’t reach the point of distress and turn to the evergreen model. Stryker’s main point is that there are different ways to get help for your child, and that you don’t need to basically torture them for them to love

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