A Handbook of Divorce and Custody: Forensic, Developmental, and Clinical Perspectives

by Gunsberg; Linda

• ISBN13: 9780881634129
• ISBN10: 0881634123
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-12-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The Handbook of Divorce and Custodybrings together mental health professionals and forensic specialists dedicated to working in the legal arena with families in crisis. Section I provides the individual perspectives of experienced clinicians, all of whom share a psychodynamic and developmental purview, and supplements their accounts with the viewpoints of a lawyer and a judge. Section II examines parental psychopathology, which is often at the root of family conflict and turmoil. Section III deals with the nature and extent of the state's potential involvement with the family, from ensuring parents' rights to raise their children to identifying those circumstances that justify the termination of parental rights. The remaining three sections follow the progressive issues engaged by divorcing families as they work their way through the legal system: forensic evaluation, post-divorce legal arrangements, and the emotional aftermath of divorce, including indications for various types of therapeutic intervention. Through the Handbook, contributors pay special attention to a set of core issues that underlie - and complicate - the evaluations, recommendations, and judicial determinations that enter into the divorce/custody process. Specifically, they focus on the inherent conflict between the family's right to privacy and the state's commitment to the best interest of children; the increasingly uncertain question of what constitutes a family and who has the right to legal standing; the problematic role of fathers in the lives of their children; the nature of the evaluation process and the role of the forensic expert in a "good enough" evaluation; the important differences between the role of therapist and the role of evaluator; and, finally, the impact of divorce itself on the lives of today's children.

Table of Contents

Contributors	xi
Acknowledgments	xv
Preface	xvii
Paul Hymowitz
Introduction	xix
Paul Hymowitz
I. The Courtroom: A Multidisciplinary Collaboration	1	(56)
Linda Gunsberg
What Judges Want (and Children Dream)	7	(6)
Alison Whitmer Tumas
A Lawyer's Considerations in Selecting a Mental Health Expert	13	(8)
Robert Z. Dobrish
Representation of the Child to the Court: The Law Guardian and Guardian ad Litem	21	(10)
Patricia Ann Grant
Steven Klee
Considering Custody Evaluations: The Thrills and the Chills	31	(14)
Bernice H. Schaul
Ethical and Legal Considerations in Child Custody Evaluations	45	(12)
James S. Wulach
David L. Shapiro
II. Parental Psychopathology and Its Impact on the Child	57	(70)
Paul Hymowitz
Home Is Where the Hurt Is: Developmental Consequences of Domestic Conflict and Violence on Children and Adolescents	61	(20)
Ava L. Siegler
Soul Blindness: A Child Must Be Seen to Be Heard	81	(10)
Jack Novick
Kerry Kelly Novick
Betrayal of the Family: The Parental Affair as Family Incest	91	(18)
Linda Gunsberg
Parental Alienation: The Creation of a False Reality	109	(18)
Moisy Shopper
III. Parents' Rights and Responsibilities	127	(48)
Paul Hymowitz
When Should Courts Be Empowered to Make Child-Rearing Decisions?	129	(10)
Martin Guggenheim
Divorce and Custody in a Changing Society	139	(4)
Albert J. Solnit
Barbara F. Nordhaus
The Rights of Parents and Stepparents: Toward a Redefinition of Parental Rights and Obligations	143	(8)
Alan J. Klein
When the State Has Custody: The Fragile Bond of Mothers and Their Infants on the Prison Nursery	151	(10)
Susan W. Silverman
When Families Cannot Be Healed: The Limits of Parental Rights	161	(14)
Michele Galietta
IV. The Forensic Expert's Challenge: Making Recommendations in the Best Interests of Children	175	(70)
Linda Gunsberg
The Developmental Evolution of the Family Forensic Evaluation	181	(20)
Linda Gunsberg
Empirically Assisted Assessment of Family Systems	201	(20)
Barry Bricklin
Gail Elliot
Parents' Sensitivity to the Child's Creative and Spiritual Core: An Overlooked Consideration in Child Custody Determinations	221	(12)
Elaine Schwager
Evaluation of Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse in Child Custody Disputes	233	(12)
B. J. Cling
V. The Dilemma of Visitation	245	(70)
Paul Hymowitz
Tailoring Parental Visitation Orders to the Developmental Needs of Children of Divorce	249	(10)
Cynthia Dember
Vivian Fliman
An Attachment Theory Framework for Planning Infant and Toddler Visitation Arrangements in Never-Married, Separated, and Divorced Families	259	(22)
Judith Solomon
Visitation in High-Conflict Families: The Impact on a Child's Inner Life	281	(10)
Barbara B. Hauser
Supervised Visitation: Preserving the Rights of Children and Their Parents	291	(10)
Alan J. Tuckman
Relocation: Parents' Needs, Children's Interests	301	(14)
Paul Hymowitz
VI. Aftermath and Healing	315	(72)
Linda Gunsberg
Experiencing the Absent Father: In Sight and Inside	319	(12)
Lora Heims Tessman
Psychotherapy with Children and Parents During Divorce	331	(12)
Diana Siskind
Clinical Work with Parents in Entrenched Custody Disputes	343	(22)
Janet R. Johnston
Parental Divorce and Developmental Progression: An Inquiry into Their Relationship	365	(22)
Judith Wallerstein
Deborah Resnikoff
Epilogue	387	(4)
Linda Gunsberg
Index	391