The Family Law Professional's Field Guide to High-Conflict Litigation : Dynamics, Not Diagnoses / Benjamin Garber and Chris Mulchay.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Garber, Benjamin, author.

Mulchay, Chris, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Domestic relations--United States--Psychological aspects.

Domestic relations.

Forensic psychology--United States.

Forensic psychology.

Litigants--Family relationships--United States--Psychology.

Litigants.

Parent and child--United States.

Parent and child.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (349 pages)

Place of Publication:

Chicago, Illinois : ABA Publishing, [2022]

Summary:

In this book, the authors have captured complex dynamics of high-conflict families and their boundary problems, explaining them in readable terms with sensitivity and warmth and forcing the reader to give up either/or, binary thinking. This book is a must-have resource for lawyers, judges, and all who work in the family court system.-- Philip M. Stahl , PhD, ABPP (Forensic) This book is THE essential (and first) guide for lawyers providing an understanding of the impact of child development and family dynamics on divorcing families. Whether you litigate, mediate, or collaborate, the information the authors deliver can only make you better at what you do. -- Jerome Poliacoff, PhD An excellent book for family law attorneys who wish to gain new and important perspectives on their clients who are part of high-conflict families. I highly recommend it. -- Professor Mary Kay Kisthardt , Tiera M. Farrow Faculty Scholar and Emerita Professor of Law, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law

Contents:

Intro

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedications

Contents

SECTION I Setting the Stage

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Why a Field Guide?

Fractals and Nested Hierarchies

Complexity and Coherence

Power and Control

Dynamics

Why Does This Matter?

Chapter 3 Healthy Child and Family Development

Defining Family Systems

What Is a Healthy Family System?

Development Is Contextually Driven

Internal Working Models

Cause and Effect Merge Once Again

IWMs Are Shaped from Both within and outside the Relationship

Development Is a Gradual Progression from Undifferentiated to Optimal Differentiation and Back Again

Resilience

Identity Is How the Individual Balances Need Fulfillment from within and Connectedness Without

When Family Systems Fail

The Judicial System

Chapter 4 Bias and Family Forensic Practice

Bias, Attitudes, Stereotypes, and Prejudice

Bias Drives Black-and-White Thinking

Definitions, Prototypes, and Biases

Bias and Resist/Refuse Dynamics

Parents Have Biases, Too

Chapter 5 The Motives That Yield Destructive Family Dynamics

Looking under the Hood

Relationships Happen at the Nexus of Needs

The Child's Need for Affiliation

Refueling

Adults Need to Be Refueled, Too

The Parent's Need to Win

The Grieving Parent

Evolution and Self-Blame

Structure Minimizes Anxiety

Chapter 6 The Professional's Humility, Limitations, and Role within the System

Roles within Adversarial Systems

When Families Enlist Professional Helpers

Science, Not Séance

Stay in Your Lane

SECTION II Taxonomy: The Dynamics of the Conflicted Family System

Chapter 7 Triangulation

Healthy Triangulation?

Pathological Triangulation

When Children Are Triangulated within the Family System

Children as Agents of Triangulation?

Does Adult Intent Matter?.

The Developmental Impact of Triangulation

Institutionalized Efforts to Prevent Triangulation

Chapter 8 The Chameleon Child

Adaptation Means Survival

Dynamics, Not Diagnoses

The Chameleon Effect

The Chameleon Effect and High-Conflict Divorce

The Chameleon Child and Custody Determinations

Chapter 9 The Polarized Child

Not All Molehills Are Mountains

Polarized Fractals?

Enumerating Relationship Pressures and Practical Hurdles

Chapter 10 Enmeshment

A Developmental Perspective

It's Impossible to Understand Enmeshment outside of Its Developmental Context

Even Parents Need to Be Refueled

The Relationship Ecology of Parent-Child Enmeshment

Developmental Decalage

Intergenerational Enmeshment?

Enmeshment, Estrangement, and Alienation?

Is This Enmeshment, Estrangement, or Alienation?

Chapter 11 Adultification

Many and Varied Meanings

Parenting Styles?

Adultification Is More Common in Certain Relationship Ecologies

Who Gets Adultified?

Healthy Adultification?

Adultification Co-Occurs with Other Destructive Dynamics

Chapter 12 Parentification

Definitions (Again)

Children as Their Siblings' Caregivers?

Parentification Occurs across Relationship Ecologies

Developmental Outcomes

Chapter 13 Infantilization and the Helicopter Parent

Definitions (One More Time)

Who Infantilizes?

Who Is Most Likely to Be Infantilized?

The Effects on the Child

Chapter 14 Estrangement or Justified Rejection

Estrangement Is NOT a Dyadic Dynamic

What Can Parent A Do?

Estrangement and Enmeshment Are Opposites

Confusing Labels

Types of Estrangement

Remedies Require Evaluations of Both Type and Risk

Chapter 15 Alienation

A Very Brief History of Alienation in the Context of Family Law

Alienation Is a Dynamic, Not a Diagnosis

The Single-Factor Model.

Pieces of the Pie

Who Alienates?

What Is the Developmental Impact of Alienation?

Alienation by Degree?

Remedies?

SECTION III At the Intersection Where the Family System Meets the Legal System

Chapter 16 Ipse Dixit and the Language of Experts

The Dilemma of Ipse Dixit

Theories and Conceptual Frameworks Are Not Data

Peer Review and Sort-of-Kind-of "Peer" Review

Chapter 17 Remedies

Ubi Jus, Ibi Remedium

What Is a Remedy?

Trial as a Remedy in and of Itself

The Menu of Family Law Remedies

Evidence-Based Medicine

Chapter 18 Where Metaphors Fail

Etic versus Emic

How Should You Use This Book?

On Self-Care

Chapter 19 Resources

Types of Parenting and Their Dynamic and Developmental Outcomes across Cultures

Parenting Capacity Evaluations

Child Custody Evaluations

Intimate Partner Violence

Epistemic Injustice and Bias Risks and Research in Family Court

Child Abuse

Infantilization

Adultification and Parentification

Intensive "Residential" Treatment Programs

Alienation Treatment Alternatives

Additional Alienation Citations of Note

Integrated Dyadic Assessment

Evaluation of Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Relevant to Determinations of Estrangement

Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another and Related Citations

Index.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-63905-011-6