High Conflict Custody Case CD

The concept of the high-conflict couple is embedded in the thinking of many professionals who work with issues of post-divorce child custody. While the concept is sometimes useful, there is a tendency to label, almost reflexively, any intransigent custody dispute as a problem of the couple-system. This practice encourages the false belief that one parent cannot drive a post-divorce conflict, that such a conflict is more or less equally the responsibility of both parties. It draws attention away from the fact that many intransigent disputes have their origin in the effort by one parent to exclude the other parent from a significant co-parenting role. The filing of false and damaging accusations, efforts to alienate the children from the other parent, plans to relocate with the children, the provocative behavior by a counterdependent, borderline or narcissistic parent--these are some of the contexts in which high-conflict patterns can emerge which are not helpfully seen as having been created by both parents.

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