Individuation for Adult Replacement Children
Ways of Coming into Being, Routledge, 2019
Kristina Schellinski has developed a new, Jungian theory-based approach for the analysis and therapy of adult replacement children. This book assists clinicians’ understanding of this condition and helps adult replacement children discover the uniqueness of their self.
Schellinski combines Jungian theory with her research over 20 years in clinical practice to demonstrate how adult replacement children who suffer unconsciously from physical and psychological distress can rediscover the essence of their being in the transformative process of individuation. Theoretical yet practical, the book discusses core concepts of analytical psychology, psychoanalysis and attachment theory; detailed case studies address grief and guilt, identity formation, relational challenges and shadow aspects. Schellinski explores how Jung’s birth after three dead children impacted his search for self and his theory; she also discloses her own personal experience. On treatment and prevention, she argues that by recognising elements of the replacement child condition, clinicians can facilitate acceptance, compassion and healing, and help reduce the risk of transgenerational transmission.
This book is an indispensable tool for clinicians, analytical psychologists and psychodynamic psychotherapists, of great interest to medical professionals and academics, those interested in Jungian studies and existential questions. “Individuation for Adult Replacement Children” offers adult replacement children and their families hope for a psychological rebirth.
“Kristina Schellinski’s book represents a major and rich contribution to the slowly but steadily evolving genre of Replacement Child literature…This book will help those affected to reach a ‘True Self’, rather than helplessly submitting to having been ‘conceived, born, or designated to replace another human being.’” – Albert C. Cain, Ph.D, Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, USA; author of On Replacing a Child, Survivors of Suicide, and numerous articles on childhood bereavement
“We are most fortunate to have this penetrating exploration, the work of a lifetime, put forward in such a cogent and useful manner.” – Joe Cambray, Ph.D.; President/CEO, Pacifica Graduate Institute
“Through this comprehensive book, children who were not visible in their own being, are granted a great visibility in their adulthood… mourning can give them back their vitality.” – Prof. Verena Kast, President, Curatorium C.G. Jung Institut Zürich, Küsnacht
“Individuation for Adult Replacement Children offers the inspiring message that the center of the self is a precious and unique being who one should become and identify with. This is the essence of becoming who you are.” – Murray Stein, Ph.D.; former President ISAP Zurich, author of Jung’s Map of the Soul
“Deeply insightful and well researched, this book is a veritable gold mine of information that enables a thorough comprehension of the replacement child syndrome. Everyone will benefit from this book. It is an absolute ‘must read’ for replacement children, their families and all healthcare professionals!” – Rita Battat Silverman, co-author of Replacement Children: The Unconscious Script
“It is Schellinski’s hope and goal ‘to prevent the making’ of a replacement child. To that end, she has written a heart-felt and deeply compassionate book for adult replacement children, parents, and therapists, it is every person’s right to shine in their own light, to be in their own right.” – Abigail Brenner, M.D., psychiatrist and writer; columnist of Psychology Today, USA
“Kristina Schellinski’s in depth study opens up a new psychological paradigm of the lived experience of being a replacement child as an adult across a broad spectrum of human experience. It is written in a transparent, easily absorbable style. Kristina Schellinski has offered a comprehensive view of a particular human condition which may touch each one of us directly, or those close to us. It behoves us to pay attention to the understanding she has gleaned.” – Hester McFarland Solomon; President, BJAA; Past President, IAAP; author, The Self in Transformation
Links
Readers will find an introduction to the psychology of the adult replacement child in:
Schellinski, K. (2014), Who am I?
Journal of Analytical Psychology, Vol 59, No 2, pp. 189-211, Oxford: Wiley Press
Journal of Analytical Psychology: Vol 59, No 2 – Wiley Online Library
For a unique illustration of the Grieving Process by Artist Caroline Mackenzie, see:
For a moving account of an adult replacement child, see:
Mandel J. (2013) Replacement Child. A Memoir
Berkeley: Seal Press/Perseus Books Group
For a comprehensive compilation account of experiences of replacement children, see:
Battat Silverman R. & Brenner A. (2015) Replacement Children, the Unconscious Script
San Mateo: Sand Hill Review Press
