becoming part of a family

[Earthcircle]

I am 49 years old, and have never been part of a family. That may sound like an outrageous thing to say. Wasn't I part of a family as a child? Not really, but I don't want to elaborate. I'm asking for any knowledge anyone has about clinical literature. Does anyone know of psychotherapeutic (psychoanalytic, whatever) literature on learning how to be part of a family later in life? Do clinical psychologists even discuss this? (I would think they do, at least a little bit.) Are there relevant books on Amazon?

 

[Luna1740]

I don't know of any clinical literature on the topic. I would be surprised if you could find any to be honest with you, but if I were you, I'd be looking for books by professional counselors instead of psychologists. The best advice I could give you would be to look for a licensed professional counselor in your area instead of seeking a psychologist for this issue because it sounds more like something that therapy would be beneficial for instead of psychology (perhaps you could find someone who is both). A psychologist would probably aim more toward the actual brain functions that cause an issue instead of the underlying issues that make you feel like you don't know how to be part of a family. For instance, I'm sure you could find a psychology paper on the number of people that grow up without being part of a family (orphans, etc.) that have are capable of creating healthy family in the future, but I don't think that will really help your current problem.