Unmasking the Abuse: Psychological Defenses in Child Custody Disputes

The following is written for child custody evaluators with the expectation that it will improve their assessment of risk to the subject children. It is argued that disputes engendering the need for these evaluations are a function of different parenting styles, but it is reliably reported as well that these disputes can mask coercive and controlling abuse. I describe two defensive mechanisms, projective identification and dissociation, that create the perceptual distortions responsible for the viciousness of many child custody disputes and can lead to custody decisions that may not protect the subject children. These defenses were theorized by early psychoanalysts and have now found significant empirical support. Additionally, this article may be of interest to those studying destructive conflict generally.