Psychology of Adoption and Family Interactions in Movies: Losing Isaiah - Essay Example

An especially moving movie, “Losing Isaiah” (1995), is about the natural and adaptive mothers of a young boy who are involved in a very bitter controversial battle to so as to gain custody over the young boy. Starring in the movie is Halle Barry playing the character of Khaila Richards, a young African American mother, and Jessica Lange who embodies Margaret Lewin, a white social worker. Richards sets her baby Isaiah on a cardboard box in a trash pile when she goes off to smoke crack. Sanitation workers find and rescue him, just before the garbage truck blade kills him. Richards, meanwhile, returns to where she left Isaiah, cannot find him, and assumes he is dead. Lewin and her husband become his temporary foster parents and ultimately adopt him. At this point, Richards resurfaces. She has completed rehabilitation, learned her son is alive, and wants him back. An extended legal fight follows, with viewers invited to pull for Lewin but also made aware that Richards might very well prevail. While technically the issue is whether Richards has received notice before her parental rights were terminated and before the adoption was finalized, Isaiah’s race and his adoption by whites comes to the forefront of the legal battle repeatedly. Lewin and her husband turn to an African American lawyer thinking it might help their case. Kadar Lewis, Richards’ lawyer played by Samuel L. Jackson, tells Richards, “This case goes way beyond you. Black babies belong with black mothers” (Foner, 1995). Jackson also gets Lewin to admit under oath that she never reads books to him that include African American characters. In the end, a Cook County judge invalidates the adoption and returns Isaiah to Richards, saying it is usually best for a child to be with his or her “natural mother,” “especially if a racial issue is involved.” Through it all, the battle is fought less by a biological mother against adoptive parents, and more by an African American mother against a white mother. When the judge rules in favor of Richards and returns Isaiah to her, white and perhaps also African American viewers of the film are invited to shake their heads in disbelief. Richards herself seems unlikely to be a good mother. She has already admitted on the stand under oath that her son was conceived in a reckless sex-for-drugs escapade and that she has no one who will help her raise Isaiah. More generally, “Losing Isaiah” suggests African American mothers are unlikely to succeed. Several have appeared previously in the film and appeared to be failing miserably as nurturers. Scholars infer that the movie portrays a discriminatory view of African American mothers (March, 1995). Not surprisingly, Isaiah takes badly to Richards as his “new” mother. After she puts his baseball hat on backwards, forces him to eat French fries, and leaves him in a large, noisy daycare facility, Isaiah grows rebellious. Distraught, Richards comes close to striking him. At wit’s end, Richards takes Isaiah to see Lewin and to ask for her help. The two women hug, and as the film ends, they are playing on the floor with Isaiah. Might an open adoption be a possibility? Might there be a way through the thicket created by the laws and legal proceedings? More than fifteen years after the release of “Losing Isaiah,” Hollywood films continue to present adoption as complicated and traumatic, but at least the adoption of African Americans by whites has become less problematic. Perhaps a biracial President will help Hollywood and Americans in general move beyond rigid “either/or” racial assumptions. The main characters of this movie are Halle Barry (as Khaila Richards) and Jessica Lange as (Margaret Lewin). The most obvious addictive behavior in this movies is drug abuse, which is presented by Khaila Richards. Khaila gets arrested for drug possession as well as shoplifting. This forces her to enter a rehabilitative work program while she is in prison. It takes her just a few years and she gets clean. She is able to get out of prison after which she obtains a job and a place where she can live. The emotional dysfunctions are many in this movie. The first one is that of Khaila. Her emotional instability started early in even before she could conceive her son, Isaiah. One of the most important stages of human development is childhood. According to Sigmund Freud, early childhood is very crucial phase and most of those things that children go during this period will lay foundation for the other stages of development. It has been noted that a mother’s actions during pregnancy may influence the development of an infant (Milkman & Sunderwirth 2010). This also covers the emotional stability or instability thereof. Khaila is not cautions of her behaviors during her pregnancy, maybe due to the emotional turmoil she herself is going though as well as the economic status that she finds herself in. According to Santrock (2002), some of the developmental impacts that an individual goes through include the influences include the prenatal, perinatal as well as the neonatal environments. Children enter this world without having a say on how their lives is going to turn out or the family they are going to be born in. This represents the nature part of the human being. However, there is also the nurture element that considers the environment or the surrounding that we are brought up in. This forms the most important part of your development. It dictates the way we will turn out to be in the future. Theorists have put forward that the first two years are very fundamental in a child’s wellbeing. Sigelman et al. (2013) have also asserted that the child is able to initiate his or her emotional, physical and social growth which in turn gets impacted by the infant’s biological and environmental factors. Losing Isaiah serves the purpose of emphasizing the importance of healthy development during childhood.  Isaiah suffers from separation anxiety disorder when the court rules that he has to stay with his maternal mother. Margaret also fall into depression when Isaiah is taken away from her. The emotional connections still exists between the two, though their grieve of losing each other destabilizes them emotionally. There are intimate relationships in this movie. The first one is that of Isaiah and the Khalia, before the young boy could be taken by Margaret. Though Khalia was going through a difficult time prior to giving birth to Isaiah, she still loved had an intimate relationship with her child. For children, intimacy starts after birth which means that Isaiah was intimately connected to his mother. The second intimate relationship is that of Margaret and his husband with Isaiah. They have raised the boy as if he was their own ad have thus developed. The addictive behavior of drinking and drug abuse by Khalia had an effect on Isaiah. Khalia left Isaiah overnight in the street and inside a small box amongst the rubbish bins. She did this so as to locate her drugs that were now running her life. This is a great show of irresponsibility from a mother. No one in their right senses can leave a child in the middle of the streets to go looking for drugs, unless such individuals are on drugs which clouds their judgment. The child was later was found the following morning by social workers as they did their rounds collecting trash (Foner, 1995). They sent him to hospital where he was able to receive treatment and he ended up just being fine. This had a very weighty impact on Isaiah’s physical development. Scientific evidence has shown that use of cocaine by expectant mothers is dangerous to the fetus since it leads to long lasting difficulties in the future. Other influences that could have affected the young boy is also poor medical care and nutrition. Isaiah was malnourished and as a result of the mother’s poor economic standards. Drug abusers take several drugs thus display other high risk behaviors such as irresponsible sexual behaviors, financial difficulties, stress and neglect of their responsibilities such as taking care of their children. When Isaiah arrived at the hospital, he experienced breathing problems and seizures leading to resuscitation from doctors. This could have been the cause of cocaine addiction. A study by Berk (2010) has shown that infects of addictive mothers are also born addicted. The best cognition therapy that could be used here is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) that will be able to help the likes of Khalia to change from their negative behaviors such as drug abuse. Upon establishing that it is their behaviors which are bringing harm to their lives, they will be able to avoid such behaviors. References Berk, L. E. (2010). Development through the lifespan (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Foner, N. (1995). LOSING ISAIAH (Revised first draft, November 12, 1993. ed.). New York: HarperCollins Publishers. March, R. (1995, March 17). Losing Isaiah Movie Review & Film Summary (1995) | Roger Ebert. All Content. Retrieved April 14, 2014, from http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/losing-isaiah-1995 Milkman, H. B., & Sunderwirth, S. G. (2010). Craving for ecstasy and natural highs: a positive approach to mood alteration. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications. Santrock, J. W. (2002). Life-span development (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Sigelman, C. K., & Rider, E. A. (2013). Life span human development (Australian and New Zealand ed.). South Melbourne, Vic.: Cengage Learning. Read More