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Psychotherapy, child abuse and the law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Roger Kennedy*
Affiliation:
The Cassel Hospital, Richmond, TW10 7JF
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Those working with families in the field of child abuse often find themselves becoming intimately involved with Family Law. Although the involvement may produce confusion and frustration in professionals untrained in the law, it may also help facilitate appropriate and effective treatment of severely disordered families. I believe not only that legal framework can help those working in the mental health field, but also that a psychotherapeutic understanding of individuals, families and groups can aid lawyers steer families more effectively and humanely through the legal process. By the term psychotherapy I mean a body of theoretical and clinical knowledge concerned with looking at people's conflicts, feelings, anxieties and reasons for actions, which includes an understanding of the unconscious processes of the mind. A psychotherapeutic approach cannot provide a substantial basis for legal theory, for the latter is heavily weighted towards the notion of the ‘reasonable’ man, whose unconscious ideas and emotions are significant only if they lead to an intention to act illegally and the carrying out of the illegal act. However, the day-to-day practice of law may perhaps be enriched by a more rigorous attempt to understand human emotions, particularly in the often emotionally painful areas of Family Law. Moreover, I suspect that there are a number of shortcomings in the current complex, sometimes muddled, way that families have to deal with the law, which the proposed new legislation (DHSS, 1987) may not address. A psychotherapeutic understanding of some of the reasons for this muddle as well as of the general issues in this field may have benefits for lawyers, mental health workers and clients.

Type
Articles
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1989

References

Bromley, P. & Lowe, N. (1987) Bromley's Family Law (seventh edition). London: Butterworths.Google Scholar
DHSS (1987) The Law on Child Care and Family Services. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Kennedy, R. et al (1987) The Family as In-Patient. London: Free Association Books.Google Scholar
Kennedy, R. et al (1988) The treatment of child abuse in an in-patient setting. Bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, 12, 361366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowe, N. & White, R. (1986) Wards of Court (second edition). London: Barry Rose.Google Scholar
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