Abstract
The authors offer a new plan to help not only the large numbers of children involved in their parents’ divorces, but all the participants in divorce and custody disagreements. This plan stresses psychiatric values above legal ones and involves the fuller participation of the child psychiatrists in advocating for the welfare of the child. The paper presents an historical context for custody rights as well as currently emerging concepts and practices. A review of the child psychiatrist's role as an objective expert and as an expert witness is given, and also a brief review of what is helpful to children whose parents divorce. The authors’ nonadversarial model for determining child custody is proffered with a consideration of the benefits of an agreed judgment on child custody.
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