title: The issue of custody in psychotherapy: its changing therapeutic and legal parameters.
abstract: The changing roles of parents within families have led to an increasingly frequent re-examination of custody arrangements. Mothers are awarded custody only after more critical scrutiny and in a less summary fashion. Moreover, fathers may now seek custody of their children in circumstances which are either mundane or less indicative of a catastrophic degree of maternal inadequacy. Likewise, fathers are seeking either joint or individual custody of children on a more routine basis. In this context, the psychiatrist is forced to re-examine his own biases regarding assumption of custody, and to help his patients work within these new social-legal frameworks. These issues are explored in the context of three cases where the individuals were seen in on-going psychotherapy, and both psychiatrist and patient were forced to confront these changing emotional, social and legal parameters.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002654:Child Care; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000639:trends*; D004243:Divorce; D005220:Fathers / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D011584:Psychology; D011613:Psychotherapy; D012380:Role; D012737:Sex Factors