When Divorces Fail: Disillusionment, Destructivity, and High-Conflict Divorce

✍ Scribed by Arthur Leonoff

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• Year: 2021
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 232
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book provides a comprehensive, in-depth analysis of the origin and the root causes of high-conflict divorce. Through rich case studies, the author points the way toward remediation and makes specific recommendations for the legal and mental health professions. Counselors, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, lawyers, and judges who regularly contend with high-conflict divorce will benefit from drawing from this new approach in their practice.

✦ Table of Contents

When Divorces
Fail
Contents
Acknowledgments
Author’s Note
Introduction
1 High Conflict:
An Ethical Dilemma
Sylvia and Murray
The Concept of High Conflict
William and Julie
Boundary Violation
Marianne and Derek
Conclusion
2 The Nature of Destructiveness
Nicole and Henry
Thoughts on an Ethical Divorce
Conclusion
3 Divorce:
A Crisis of Disillusionment
Emily and Brian
Healthy, Creative Illusion
Disillusionment and Endings
Table
3.1: Disillusionment Checklist
Aishah and Allam
Emily and Brian: One More Look
Fixing the Problem
Coping With the Disillusionments of Everyday Life
Sophie and Terry
Conclusion
4 Disillusionment Therapy
Danny and Pat
Capacity to Say Sorry
Monique and Pierre
The Couple Mentality and the Couple Quotient (CQ)
Something Versus Nothing
Serena and David: Healthy Resolution
Carol and Daniel: The Road to High Conflict
Disillusionment and Same-Sex
Unions (LGBTQ)
Denise and Pauline
Conclusion
5 Love in the Age of Divorce
Kenneth and Irene
Norman and Kayla
Narcissism and Ethics
Donald and Jill
Why Ethics?
Conclusion
6 Those Who Cannot Love:
Destructive Personalities
Jerome and Sylvia
John and Melissa
Susanne
Melanie and Stanley
Ticking Biological Clock: High-Conflict
Risk
Barbara and Jeff
Domination, Submission, Sadomasochism, and Problems in Loving
Dennis and Lila
Alienated Children: Power and Control
David
Mary and Henry
The Fate of the Family in Alienation
Phillip
Who Is Dominating Whom in Parental Alienation?
Lena
Alienated Child—Alienating Parent
Conclusion
7 In Pursuit of an Ethical Divorce:
What This Means for High Conflict
“I Could Have Done More”
Diana and Matthew
Transgenerational Trauma and Marital Conflict
Maria Teresa and Julio
Capacity for Concern
Aggression, Emotional Control, and High Conflict
Gerald and Susan
Conclusion
8 Confronting the Nihilism of High Conflict
Serena and Robert
Troy and Sharon
Conclusion
9 Traumatic Conflict Disorder
Neil and Belinda
Reconceptualizing High Conflict
Sara and Sam
TCD and Destructivity: The Role of Hatred
Mentalization and TCD
Sheila and Geoffrey
Disillusionment Therapy
Jasminka and Harry
Integrating TCD Concepts into Clinical Interventions
Conclusion
10 Implications for Legal, Judicial, and Mental Health Services
Classifying Features
Scorn
Antagonism
Disillusionment
Conflict
Identifying TCD
Recommendations for the Legal System
Recommendations for Mental Health Professionals
Conclusion
11 Tabling High Conflict:
On the Path to Ethics
Role of Trauma
Disillusionment-Oriented
Divorce Therapy
Final Reflections
Return to Ethics
Conclusion
Index
About the Author