| Publication de l'article "Logistique?" (publié le 24 May 2010) | Mens Sana Articles - News sur la schizophrénie |
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«L'intendance suivra.» Charles de Gaulle.
Une "stratégie" de la Santé Mentale ignorant délibérément la logistique correspondante n'est qu'un slogan publicitaire sans résultats pratiques: on peut être sûr que "l'intendance ne suivra pas".
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| Publication de l'article "Supersanté?" (publié le 26 Apr 2010) | Mens Sana Articles - News sur la schizophrénie |
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La santé mentale n'est ni la santé politique ni la politique de santé.
«La quête de la santé est un symptôme de mauvaise santé. Quand cette quête cesse d'être une aspiration personnelle mais devient partie d'une
idéologie d'État - c.à.d. en bref, du "sanitarisme" - elle devient un symptôme de maladie politique.» Petr Skrabanek
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| Publication de l'article "Mission Impossible" (publié le 05 Feb 2010) | Mens Sana Articles - News sur la schizophrénie |
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Comment convaincre tous ceux concernés par le sort des malades mentaux de mettre en commun les savoirs éprouvés qu'ils ont déjà acquis,
afin de réduire d'autant les ignorances et les croyances erronées qu'ils conservent encore? Serait-ce une mission impossible?
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| Le Point 48 dans le dossier Les Médias (publié le 05 Feb 2010) | Mens Sana Dossiers - News sur la schizophrénie |
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"La structure du cerveau sans plus d'influence sur sa fonction que si c'était de la sauce blanche?"
en réaction à l'article paru le 15 janvier 2010 intitulé "Différer le traitement des psychoses est nocif pour le cerveau"
signé de Mr Johan Waelkens (Journal du médecin, n°2051, p. 25).
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| Publication de l'article "Constats" (publié le 12 Oct 2009) | Mens Sana Articles - News sur la schizophrénie |
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Si les "psys" expliquaient ce qu'ils savent des maladies mentales en évitant d'inventer ce qu'ils en ignorent,
leur discours deviendrait à la fois plus court, plus crédible et sans doute plus utile.
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| Publication de l'article "Rêveries" (publié le 15 Jun 2009) | Mens Sana Articles - News sur la schizophrénie |
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L'imagination n'est pas le pouvoir.
Philosophie des concepts flous. Nous ne pouvons voir de nous-même qu'un reflet toujours inversé et peut-être déformé chez certains.
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| Publication de l'article "Penser" (publié le 06 Mar 2009) | Mens Sana Articles - News sur la schizophrénie |
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Si penser juste est difficile, croire sans savoir et rêver sans réfléchir ne demandent aucun apprentissage ni effort.
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| Trois nouveaux livres (publié le 22 Dec 2008) | Mens Sana Livres - News sur la schizophrénie |
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Mise à jour de la rubrique Livres et ajout de trois titres:
- "Mon fils, schizophrène" par Dominique Laporte.
- "The insanity offense" par E. Fuller Torrey.
- "Schizophrenia, medicine's mystery - society's shame" par Marvin Ross.
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| Publication de l'article "La Com" (publié le 20 Oct 2008) | Mens Sana Articles - News sur la schizophrénie |
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Communication en Santé Mentale.
Loin de s'attaquer concrètement aux vrais problèmes des malades mentaux chroniques, à tous niveaux on fait de la "COM".
Ceux qui la font montrent ainsi qu'ils existent et la plupart s'en tiennent à cela: cela semble leur suffire.
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| Le Point 47 dans le dossier Les Médias (publié le 18 Aug 2008) | Mens Sana Dossiers - News sur la schizophrénie |
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Postuler a priori l'équivalence de l'imagination pure de l'expert et du savoir scientifiquement démontré?
en réaction à "l'Entretien" paru le 6 août 2008 dans L'Humanité intitulé "Différencier maladie mentale et troubles de la personnalité"
propos du Dr Roland Coutanceau recueillis par Marie-Noëlle Bertrand.
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| "La schizophrénie de l'adulte" par M. Saoud et T. d'Amato (publié le 18 Aug 2008) | Mens Sana Livres - News sur la schizophrénie |
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Le mérite de ce livre est d'avoir mis l'accent sur la nécessaire matérialité biologique des
causes et des mécanismes responsables des manifestations des troubles schizophréniques.
Le reproche que je serais tenté d'adresser à l'ouvrage est de ne pas attirer l'attention sur le fait que la majorité
des "preuves" sur lesquelles la psychiatrie prétend se baser ne sont en fait pas des relations de "cause à effet", mais plutôt des corrélations.
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| Mise à jour de l'article "Questions" (publié le 05 May 2008) | Mens Sana Articles - News sur la schizophrénie |
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Deux nouveaux exemples de contradiction ou d'incohérence ajoutés aux trois premiers:
Exemple 4: Troubles mentaux et maternité.
Exemple 5: Non hospitalisation et responsabilités.
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| Les Points 43 à 46 dans les Médias (publié le 03 Mar 2008) | Mens Sana Dossiers - News sur la schizophrénie |
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Quatre extraits de presse ajoutés au dossier Les Médias:
43. Technique de la boule de cristal en réaction à l'article paru le 6 février dans le Soir en ligne
"Le rôle du psy: éclairer au mieux le magistrat" signé Jean-Pierre Borloo
44. Ah! Cette fichue simulation... en réaction à l'article paru le 14 février dans la Libre Belgique
"Hallucinations, voix et délires" par Laurence Dardenne
45. Le constat du présent a changé de nom! Serait-il devenu la prédiction du passé?
en réaction à l'article paru le 15 février dans Le Figaro
"Prédire le début de la schizophrénie" par Jean-Michel Bader
46. Crac! V'la l' facteur! en réaction à l'article paru le 21 février dans Le Généraliste (864)
"Le cerveau et l'esprit à nouveau réunis" signé Dr M. Langendries
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| Publication de l'article "Patience" (publié le 12 Feb 2008) | Mens Sana Articles - News sur la schizophrénie |
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Des tâches de longue haleine en psychiatrie.
Apprenons d'abord à savoir et à faire ce qui nous est accessible. Ensuite seulement, nous pourrons rêver à ce qui ne l'est pas encore.
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| Le Point 42 dans le dossier Les Médias (publié le 14 Jan 2008) | Mens Sana Dossiers - News sur la schizophrénie |
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Publication de "Interprétation journalistique et humoristique de la psychose" en réaction à l'article "Les fausses alertes se multiplient" signé de Nawal Bensalem, paru le 7 janvier 2008 dans le quotidien belge la Dernière Heure.
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Quitter - Actualiser - Sources - 3 dernières news - Archives 24h - Jobs et emplois - Haut de page
| Recueil de poésie : Nue comme un ver(s), par Emilie Fédou (publié le 09 Sep 2010) | Abandon et adoption (blog) Livre - Revue |
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Arrivée nue comme un ver(s) dans une famille adoptive, gage d?une stabilité mise à mal, Emilie Fédou a connu une enfance marquée par cet acte odieux que l?on nomme inceste. Grâce à la vérité des vers, l?invisible devient visible et c?est la tête haute qu?elle livre une part d?elle-même. Sans retenue, elle s?adresse à ceux qui ont fait éclater sa jeunesse en mille morceaux. Mais comment parler de l?innommable ? Sans complexe, elle aborde ses souffrances, ses peurs et ses espoirs. L?enfant adopté fait partager avec sincérité son expérience de l?adoption internationale. Aujourd?hui, l?adulte qu?elle est devenue sort de l?isolement pour prendre la parole, une parole trop souvent discréditée pendant son enfance. Quand l?expression des tabous devient poésie, cela donne un recueil poignant, qui sonne comme une délivrance salvatrice. Les blessures liées à l?enfance ne sont jamais totalement guéries? Entre vie et survie, les vers, re?ets des états d?âme, des cris de révolte ou de colère, permettent d?entrevoir la vérité crue. Ces poèmes, incroyablement percutants, révèlent des fragments de vie sans détour. Plus que des constats, ils sont l?occasion de se servir des traumatismes de l?enfance en vue d?une libération? un véritable acte de résilience. Résumé Combien de fois l?enfance d?Émilie Fédou a-t-elle été sabotée, ravagée? Il y eut ainsi la mort de sa mère, l?alcoolisme de son père, le déracinement encore. Et surtout, incompréhensibles, destructeurs, ces gestes incestueux qui lui valurent d?être rejetée. L?inceste: ce pire-que-tout sur lequel il est si difficile de mettre des mots? Seul moyen trouvé par l?auteur pour mettre au monde cette souffrance si longtemps contenue? La poésie et l?écriture de ce recueil qui redonne sa voix à l?enfant prisonnière des ténèbres. Avis de Publibook "Nue comme un ver(s)": titre à la riche polysémie, qui renvoie tout autant à cet état premier d?innocence que souhaite retrouver l?auteur, qu?à ce dépouillement de toutes les scories laissées par les adultes qui l?ont fait souffrir. De poèmes-cris en textes apaisés, des hurlements qui se laissent entendre sous les mots à cette tranquillité de l?âme tant recherchée, cette ?uvre sincère, parfois brute, toujours bouleversante, rend compte de ces capacités d?exorcisme que possède l?écriture. Les premières pages du livre Source : Les Editions Publibook
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| Haïti: "Accélérer" les adoptions internationales à la suite d'une catastrophe naturelle ... prévenir les dommages futurs. (publié le 06 Sep 2010) | Abandon et adoption (blog) Adoption internationaleEtude - Recherche |
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Ce nouveau rapport du SSI examine les pratiques de l'adoption internationale suite au tremblement de terre en Haïti. Haïti a été un pays d'origine «populaire», en ce sens que des milliers d'enfants se trouvaient à un certain stade du processus d'adoption- parfois simplement "identifiés" comme potentiellement adoptables - au moment du séisme. Les réponses des «pays d'accueil » et autres relatives à l'adoption ultérieure des enfants déplacés à l'étranger furent diverses et contrastées. Ce rapport passe en revue et analyse la vaste gamme de réponses et de mesures exceptionnelles mises en ?uvre par certains pays en vue d'accélérer, dans un premier temps, le transfert des enfants (à l'égard desquels un jugement d'adoption avaient été rendu) et, dans un deuxième temps, les adoptions et autres procédures préalables à l'adoption (sans jugement). Dans le cadre de ces mesures exceptionnelles, l'objectif principal de ce rapport est d'identifier les leçons à tirer de cette situation afin de prévenir les dommages futurs. Ce n'est pas l'intention du rapport de dénoncer un pays en particulier, mais plutôt de fournir une analyse objective des mesures expéditives déployées, à l'encontre du cadre posé par les normes internationales. Source : ISS - Service Social International . 3 septembre 2010.
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| Le film "Cherche un enfant, paie cash. Le lobby de l'adoption." parmi les nominés Kindernothilfe 2010 ! (publié le 05 Sep 2010) | Abandon et adoption (blog) Droits de l'enfantFilm & documentaire |
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Douze journalistes nominés pour Kindernothilfe Prix des Media. Remise des prix le 12 Novembre à Berlin. (Duisburg, le 5 août 2010). Un jury de cinq membres indépendants a choisi parmi 65 candidatures provenant de l'Allemagne, d'Autriche et de la Suisse, douze journalistes qui ont publié ces dernières années des travaux sur les droits de l'enfant. Sous les auspices de Christina Rau nomme et honore les gagnants du Kindernothilfe avec de nombreuses célébrités a Berlin. "Dans les quatre catégories de TV, radio, presse écrite et photographie, cette année, cette le thème de fuite des migrations» est traité, explique Sascha Decker, porte-parole du Kindernothilfe. "Les soumissions ont été pour la plupart très forte. Le jury n'a pas eu une décision facile à prendre " Harald Biskup (Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger), Oswald Eggenschwiler (NZZ am Sonntag), Renate Friedrich (n-tv), Andreas Fritzsche (chrisme) et Renata Schmidt Kunz (ORF) ont nommé les journalistes suivants pour le prix Kindernothilfe "Droits de l'enfant dans un Monde?: TV: Gabriele Probst, "Laisser seuls - les enfants du sida en Ukraine" (Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg), Golineh Ataï , «Cherche enfant, payer en cash ? Le Lobby d?Adoption» (WDR) , Kajo Fritz, "L?ange de Ghana" (RTL ) Radio: Rebecca Hillauer, "Les jeunes âmes - des produits bon marché, les enfants dans le tourisme sexuel" (Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg), Keno Verseck, «Laissé seul» (Allemagne Funk), Jens Jarisch, «Les enfants de Sodome et Gomorrhe - Pourquoi les jeunes Africains fuient vers l'Europe »(Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg) Imprime: Gaby Herzog, «Les esclaves de la maison de Port-au-Prince" (Neue Zürcher Zeitung), Meike Dinklage, «Sauvé» (Brigitte), le fusil Nicolas, «L'avant-garde du bonheur» (Der Spiegel) Photo: Martin Steffen, «Enfants Restavec » (NZZ, RP, WDR, etc), Christoph Gödan, "Les Mères grandes» (continents), Hartmut Schwarzbach, "Les braves enfants de Diwalwal Gold" (Continents / magazine Missio) Kindernothilfe donne ce prix des médias depuis 1999, avec une valeur de 2500 ? dans ces catégories. Les contributions journalistiques exceptionnelles contribueront à sensibiliser le public aux droits des enfants, en particulier les abus des droits des enfants. Source: Kindernothilfe.
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| Trafic de bébé démantelé en Pologne. (publié le 02 Sep 2010) | Abandon et adoption (blog) Trafic d'enfants |
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Un homme a été arrêté par la police dans la région de Wielkopolska (ouest de la Pologne). Il servait d'intermédiaire entre des femmes qui ne désiraient pas leurs bébés avec des femmes dans l'impossibilité de concevoir. L'homme effectuait ses recherche sur internet, recherchait des femmes puis effectuait la transaction. Il a offert entre 7.500 et plus de 17 000 euros aux femmes enceintes et prenait une large commission a déclaré Andrzej Borowiak de la police dans l'ouest de Poznan. L'homme est soupçonné d'avoir réalisé au moins douze "transactions de bébé" il risque jusqu'à cinq ans de prison. Le trafic de bébé est assez fréquent en Pologne, il existe de nombreux site internet qui proposent cette pratique illégalea indiqué Beata Dolegowska qui es a la tête de la Fondation de l'adoption de bébé . Elle ajoute qu'il est difficile d'assembler des preuves suffisantes et que ces cas ne vont que très rarement devant les tribunaux: «Souvent, les parents biologiques n'ont pas d'argent ou ne peuvent pas offrir de conditions satisfaisantes pour l'éducation d'un enfant» , nous dit Beata Dolegowska. "D'autre part, généralement les gens préfèrent adopter un bébé, pas un enfant, et il n'y a pas beaucoup de bébés prêts pour l'adoption en Pologne, ce qui porte sur la conjoncture pour le trafic de bébés." Source: Varso-vie .
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| Les enfants ne sont pas des marchandises. (publié le 26 Aug 2010) | Abandon et adoption (blog) Adoption internationale |
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Children are not commodity In the wake of not so recent scandals over adopted children?s deaths and violence in the United States, France and Finland, Russian parliament set up a commission on children?s rights, headed by Pavel Astakhov, a top-class lawyer, and children?s rights ombudsman. In a recent interview he spoke about the commission?s activities. Pavel Astakhov is a lawyer with a name whose opinion counts. As the head of this commission he insists that the number of foreign adoption agencies in Russia should be reduced. This statement came ahead of another round of negotiations on a bilateral child adoption agreement between Russia and the USA. The document should outline mechanisms to control living conditions of adopted Russian children in the United States and other countries. ?At present some Russian 700,000 children need the care of the state. So the issue of adoption legislation have gained a greater than ever importance. In the last several years we came to realize that we must remedy the situation with orphaned children. We also learnt that we have too few children ? 26 million or so. This number in the United States, for one, is 72 million. Demographers say Russia is facing the problem of reduction of children?s population, so by 2025 their number can fall to 22 million or so. Compared with the United States again ? that country can boast some 100 million children or more. To whom are we going to give the helm, and how strong and competitive will Russia be then,? asks Pavel Astakhov, ombudsman for the protection of children?s rights. Astakhov says that every Russian child is worth his or her weight in gold. This country cannot afford losing 2,000 children?s lives in car crashes and another 2,000 or so in accidents at home as we had it last year. The problem is not much spoken about, but it must be focused on to find ways out, to speak on the issues of adoption. As things stand now, few orphans find new Russian families. Anything that helps to bring them into families is good, be it guardianship, patronage or adoption. We should offer incentives to adults who want to adopt a child but hesitate not knowing enough about the necessary procedures. As a matter of fact they are rather simple, given that just one precondition is there ? the assistance of domestic guardianship bodies. Of course any psychologist would tell the parents adopting a child that they would have problems with him or her. But adults should be able to cope with children?s problems, seeing their ultimate goal of raising full-fledged citizens with every right they are guaranteed by the state. ?This brings us to the theme of adoption by foreigners,? said Pavel Astakhov. ?In the past 16 years Americans, for example, have been very active adopters. They took children from Vietnam, China, Ethiopia, and other countries. Many prefer Russian children and are ready to stay on long waiting lists, because they find them especially gifted and talented thanks to their roots. Americans have already adopted more than 60,000 Russian children. As a lawyer, I refuse to view this as a positive trend,? said Pavel Astakhov, ?as we still have no relevant inter-governmental agreement, even though there?s no selling any commodity to the United States without a contract. Children are no commodities but we still allow taking them out without any contract or obligations. And now we have 17 children who died of parent cruelty there. And if it were not for the situation with Artyom Saveliev whom his new American ?mummy? put on a plane as a sack of potatoes with a one-way ticket and a note ?Take him back!? we still would not have addressed adoption legislation,? said Pavel Astakhov. Now that this issue is being handled, and Russia?s stance on it is quite tough. Without such an agreement we would not let foreigners take children out of Russia. We do have a law that allows foreigners to adopt Russian children, but only if a child has not been adopted by Russian citizens. There are agencies here who try to circumvent this provision by hook or by crook to get their fat profits. This is another problem we have to solve. But, Pavel Astakhov adds, he is against business on children with no guarantees and regular reports about their well-being. We will sign relevant agreements with the United States, France, Germany, Finland and Spain similar to the only one we have with Italy. Ireland had recently announced it would not adopt Russian children any longer. This does not hurt us,? Pavel Astakhov said, adding that he is confident that it would not take too long before motherless Russian children would be adopted by Russian families. Voir aussi la vidéo sur "The Voice of Russia". Documents 'fudged' because of concerns about Russian response E-mails between adoption workers involved with the case of a Russian boy who was sent back to his homeland alone by a former Shelbyville woman appear to indicate that reports about the placement of the child to Russian officials may have been "fudged." Times Gazette . 22 août 2010.
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| La seule de ma race, par Nathalie Daysse, née sous X. (publié le 25 Aug 2010) | Abandon et adoption (blog) Livre - RevueNés sous X |
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Le droit à connaître ses origines Nathalie Daysse était le 20 août 2010 à l'Office du tourisme de La Gacilly pour dédicacer son autobiographie, La seule de ma race . Enfant abandonnée et adoptée à 10 jours, elle raconte ses interrogations et son mal de vivre. Son manque, c'est de ne pas connaître ses origines. « Tout l'amour des parents adoptifs n'empêche de se sentir comme un électron libre » , d'être un maillon hors de toute chaîne. À l'âge de 38 ans, mère de famille, elle perd sa mère adoptive. Elle reprend sa quête et finit par retrouver sa mère biologique. Le fil de son histoire se renoue. Ce livre émouvant est aussi un plaidoyer. « Les enfants nés sous X sont 400 000 en France. Chacun devrait avoir le droit, s'il le souhaite, à sa majorité, de connaître sa filiation. Même sans le consentement des parents biologiques » . Elle remet en cause « la procédure de l'accouchement sous X et le verrouillage de l'administration » . Elle défend ainsi les intérêts des enfants, et de leurs descendants avec leur histoire, et leur hérédité génétique, alors que sont aujourd'hui davantage pris en compte les intérêts des géniteurs et des parents adoptifs. Sa mère biologique, qui a rédigé la postface, comprend la souffrance de sa fille, mais défend le secret. La seule de ma race , Éditions Le Toucan en librairie, à la Fnac et sur le site Amazone Source: Ouest France .
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| Des familles allemandes déchirées par les adoptions forcées pendant la guerre froide recherchent encore des réponses - et leurs parents perdus. (publié le 23 Aug 2010) | Abandon et adoption (blog) Origine - Identité |
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The legacy of forced adoptions German families torn apart by forced adoptions during the cold war are still looking for answers ? and their lost relatives It took exactly four minutes to steal Andreas Laake's baby son ? that was the length of the court hearing that swept away his paternity rights. Some 26 years later Laake can still recall every detail of the trial: his aching wrists cuffed behind his back; the musty smell of the courtroom; the steely voice of the young female judge. Then there were the vague words of the social worker who said that after his attempted escape from the German Democratic Republic: "we do not believe Mr Laake has the ability to bring up his son for the purpose of socialism". Laake was not even allowed to defend himself. All he said in court were four words: "I do not agree." Several weeks later his son Marco was adopted by people who were considered, in ideological terms, much more reliable parents. "Since then, I've spent half a lifetime searching for him," says Laake. It took a matter of minutes for Katrin Behr to be separated from her family too. It was a cold winter morning in 1972 when three men in long, dark coats knocked on the door to arrest her mother. Behr was four-and-a-half years old at the time, and can still remember the panic in her mother's voice as she urged her daughter to get dressed quickly. But Katrin Behr was left behind. The last words she heard were, "Be brave. I'll be back tonight," before her mother was spirited off to a socialist boot camp. It would be 19 years until they saw each other again. After short stopovers in various foster homes, Behr was adopted by a strict woman, a secretary of the Socialist party. She tried to adapt as best she could. "I did what I was told," Behr says. "As a little girl I really thought that that was the best way to avoid trouble." Stealing children was one way the German Democratic Republic muzzled its people ? Behr and Laake belong to an estimated 1,000 families torn apart by the socialist authorities. Forced adoptions were a tool that the regime "could impose on virtually anyone who was considered suspicious", Behr says; all it took to be judged a bad parent was to infringe on vague "socialist guidelines". In Behr's case, her mother, a single parent, was arrested after she had lost her job and decided to stay at home to care for her children ? a major transgression in the eyes of a state that believed in compulsory labour. In her new family, Behr always felt "like a second-class daughter", she says, "a Cinderella who had to clean the house and care for my younger adoptive brother while my adoptive mother was at work". She was told repeatedly that she had been put up for adoption because her natural mother did not love her. "I desperately tried to cling to a positive image of her," Behr says, "but any abandoned child would start to doubt that love after 19 years." She was granted limited access to her adoption file following reunification, and learned that her mother had never had a chance to get her daughter back. She also found out that her mother had spent several years in prison. Still, it took Behr a whole year to get in touch with her. "I hesitated," she says, "because I was afraid that the negative comments about her would be proved right." When Behr finally met her natural mother, she says she was obsessed with the idea that everyone in her extended family would get along: she therefore arranged for her natural and adoptive mother to meet. This was a disaster. Behr had to separate the women when they literally went for each other's throat: "You stole my child, you communist bitch!" Behr's natural mother shouted. Today Behr is only in touch very occasionally with both women. Three years ago, Behr set up a support group for the victims of forced adoptions, and since then the 43-year-old has been contacted by hundreds of people still searching for their children, parents or siblings. The 20th anniversary of reunification this October has prompted a flood of interest: a number of films on the topic have come out in Germany, and have been greeted with huge surprise by the public ? they have also prompted victims to talk about their cases publicly for the first time. Like Laake, most of them feel betrayed twice over. The GDR destroyed their families, and the reunified German state did nothing to redress the injustice. Walking through the dismal Leipzig suburbs feels like being transported back 20 years: there are potholes, weeds growing through the tarmac, dozens of uniform grey apartment blocks. Laake, a slim, frail man of 50, lives in a ground-floor flat in one of these blocks. Over the years, he has tried everything to find his son. He has posted notices on the internet. He has sent letters to politicians. He has recruited lawyers and private investigators. And he has continually been reminded that, while times and political systems change, his situation has not. He is eager to tell his story, he says, despite the intimidation he has experienced. Laake and his family have been attacked by a man in the street; his car has been damaged twice; someone broke into his cellar; the only photo of his son as a baby has disappeared. But Laake says he is not afraid. "I am certainly not going to be paranoid. Not after all these years." Laake's career as an "enemy of the socialist state" was never political. It started as a harmless teenage rebellion. He refused to join the youth organisation of the Socialist party, and at school in the 1970s he often wore a faux stetson and a black denim suit he'd made himself. This provocatively "western" outfit made him a target for his teachers' criticism. "But my mother always supported me," says Laake. "Our family agreed on the importance of personal freedom. As long as I can remember I wanted to get out of East Germany." Early marriages were common in the GDR and so, at 19, Laake proposed to his childhood friend, Ilona, who came to share his dream of life on the other side of the iron curtain. Three years into their marriage, when she was expecting a baby, they decided to flee. Their idea was to cross the Baltic sea overnight in an inflatable rubber boat. It was hazardous: the beach became a prohibited zone after dusk, closely monitored by military police. "But when you are on the run, you stop thinking," says Laake. "You are in a sort of survival mode. It's all about: get on the water. Cower down in the dinghy so you're not shot. Then paddle for your life." They did not even make it to the water. "You can't describe the pressure you feel when there are five Kalashnikovs pointing at you." Andreas Laake Andreas Laake is still searching for his son, who was adopted as a baby. Photograph: Eva-Helen Thoele As an ex-prisoner and attempted refugee, Laake is officially acknowledged as a victim of political injustice, and he has even been granted a small monthly pension by the German government. But as a betrayed father, there are no documents proving his case. The GDR authorities effectively covered their tracks. Laake never received any official papers about his trial and because of data privacy laws his son's adoption file is closed to him for 50 years. The only person who has limited access to the file ? other than the case officers ? is Marco himself. And there's no way of knowing if he's ever even been told that he's adopted. With no access to the details of his case, Laake has had to commit everything he can to memory. The words of the security agent who beat him during questioning. The document he signed to spare his pregnant wife imprisonment, confessing that he alone was responsible for the escape. The Hannibal-Lecter-style cage they built inside a cell, where, for several weeks ? as a special punishment ? he was kept in solitary confinement. He was in prison for six-and-a-half years altogether. Marco was born and put up for adoption while Laake was under arrest; his wife had buckled under the massive pressure to give their child up. "She was only 21 years old, she was afraid, they threatened to make her life hell, they mentally broke her." Laake knows that she had no real chance to prevent the forced adoption, but the couple nevertheless fell out over the loss, and are now divorced. "In the end I simply couldn't forgive her," he says. While telling his story Laake shows me a number of photographs of Marco: in a rowing boat, aged eight, and as a teenager at a party. They were given to him just a few months ago, as a result of his persistent campaign, by a social worker who is apparently in contact with Marco's adoptive family. She also read out a short letter, supposedly from Marco, now 26, who said that he has a good life and does not wish to get to know his natural father. Laake was not allowed to see the letter himself, for reasons of data protection. "His language sounded clumsy and strangely impersonal," he says. "As if someone had desperately tried to put himself into Marco's position and then made the whole thing up." Laake knows that "there is no law that could turn around my situation". When the reunification treaty was signed in 1990 the new German state had not distinguished between legal and illegal adoptions, so every case today is dealt with according to the old West German law, which prohibits natural parents from finding out about children they voluntarily gave up. The builders of the new German state 20 years ago either forgot to classify "adoptions against the will of the parents" as a violation of human rights or, as the historian and GDR expert Uwe Hillmer suggests, they simply were not interested. "Even members of the Kohl government admitted internally: forget about the past," says Hillmer. Many of the Socialist administration's files were destroyed during the last days of the GDR, and a former officer of the Stasi, the East German security service, once told Hillmer: "You haven't got the slightest idea about the real extent of injustice, and you will never find out what really happened." That Stasi officer might well be right, but reading through Behr's victim support website gives some sense of the scale of what went on. Behr has collected more than 300 cases of alleged forced adoption so far, and she is trying to help more than 200 people to find family members. There are 93 unsettled cases regarding the deaths of newborn babies: Behr has documented the stories of mothers who were still lying in the delivery room when they were told that their babies had died ? but swear they heard their child crying. They were not allowed to see their baby's corpse. One mother visited the grave of her twin daughters for more than 25 years before seeing two young women tell the story of their adoption on TV. They were her daughters. It's unclear why this cruel practice took place; most of the people involved in the forced adoptions have refused to talk. Hillmer says there are suspicions that Socialist party officials who could not have children "ordered" newborns from cooperative gynaecologists, although this has only been proved in one case so far. Behr's objective is to make the victims' voices heard. She gives lectures across Germany about forced adoption. "Many victims find themselves in the humiliating position that no one even believes them, and the strangeness of their cases doesn't make it any easier," she says. Most of them suffer from depression, and some question their own memories, as Behr has herself. The separation from her natural mother destroyed her self-esteem and she suspects she will never fully recover. Laake refuses to accept that the data protection law is the only reason he is prevented from contacting Marco; he suspects that Marco's adoptive parents don't want their son to know the circumstances of his adoption. "If they told him," he says, "it could destroy their family." He keeps turning questions over in his mind: what if Marco's clumsy letter was written by someone else? What if old Stasi networks are still operating in Leipzig? What if Marco's adoptive parents are former party officials trying to hide their past? Behr is helping Laake with his investigation, and worries about his safety. Until recently, she didn't believe the rumours about Stasi networks being operational, but "looking at Laake's case with all its dodgy incidents made me change my mind", she says. After Laake was attacked in the street, police advised him to search for a new flat for his own safety. There is another reason that Behr is concerned about Laake. She says that many victims of forced adoption build up high hopes that things will change for the better once they find their natural family. "They focus on a happy ending that is never going to happen." Behr has helped more than 100 people to find their lost family members so far, but most cases end like her own: there is an initial sense of relief, followed by disappointment that the parent or child in question has become a complete stranger. Laake knows that there may be no happy ending for him, that the problem of East Germany's lost children "is probably not solvable". Nevertheless he will carry on searching for Marco. He has started to call the adoption office twice a week, and he is also planning a sit-down strike outside the office, "with a sign around my neck: give me back my son!" He says he doesn't expect anything from contact with Marco. "I could even understand if he didn't wish to meet me." But he wants to hear that for himself. Laake is tired of all the threats and delays. "All I want is certainty. That's the minimum a father can expect." Source : guardian.co.uk , Sunday 22 August 2010.
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