Custody Disputes and Distorted Parent-Child Relationships
It is a commonplace in family relationships in custody disputes that parent-child relationships are distorted and often unhealthy. These distortions arise from several sources, including parental insecurity (hence, the common sleeping together), distortions arising from the evaluation process itself, and what I call “competitive parental attention.” It may be covert or overt. It is observed in both parents. […]
Conditional Release in Hawaii–Is the System Failing?
On 11/07/2010, the Star Advertiser published a story on Hawaii’s Conditional Release program (“Violence Caused by Freed Patients”)–where mentally offenders are released into the community after they have been adjudicated–that was inaccurate and misleading. Neil Gowensmith posted a response here a few days ago. I am attaching my letter to the editor. It will be interesting to […]
Achilles in Vietnam
The issue of combat PTSD is much in the news these days. The greatest illusion that seems to be put forth is that we can “treat” PTSD as if exposure to war was something you can get over, if only we had “better treatment.” It ends up being a sort of minimization of the costs of […]
The facts about Conditional Release in Hawaii
A couple of recent Star Advertiser pieces were quite critical of the Conditional Release system in Hawaii. They highlighted a recent CR case that was exceptionally tragic, and also highlighted another tragic event pursuant to someone released from the Hawaii State Hospital after a finding of unrestorability and a period of civil commitment. Unfortunately the […]