The issue of custody in psychotherapy: its changing therapeutic and legal parameters

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.