A new article in Family Court Review warns that psychiatric diagnoses, already controversial in mental health care, are being routinely misused in legal settings, especially in family court. These labels, the authors argue, are not neutral descriptors but tools that can be weaponized in custody disputes, fueling discrimination and flawed decision-making.
Donald T. Saposnek and Dan Berstein of Family Mediation Service in California explore the complex role of psychiatric diagnoses in family court. They examine the historical use of diagnostic terms, assess their utility and drawbacks, and emphasize the legal rights of people with mental health conditions.
Their analysis highlights persistent patterns of microaggressions and systemic bias faced by parents and children with psychiatric disabilities. They reveal how diagnostic labels can be leveraged to discredit or marginalize. In response, the authors advocate for a fundamental shift in how these labels are understood and applied in the family court setting. They also offer practical tools and strategies to foster better practices in the court system.
“Across all of these court-connected contexts – mediation, child protection, parenting plan assessments (aka, child custody evaluations), expert testimony, and parenting coordination – there are potential biases from the use of mental health labels as a determining factor as to whether, and to what degree, a parent is fit to parent, and what their prospects are for better outcomes. Instead of defining people by their disability diagnoses, it is crucial that we shift our thinking to focus on actual observed behaviors.”
Rather than providing meaningful insight into parenting ability, psychiatric labels can become shortcuts, stand-ins for evidence, and tools of character assassination. Saposnek and Berstein argue that mental health diagnoses must be contextualized, not treated as automatic red flags. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), people with psychiatric histories are protected from discrimination. Yet in practice, these rights are often overlooked in family court.
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Very true. Thank you. I think so too, as you said…
Also.. Court decisions, under the name of ‘mental health treatment’…
…turns the mental health system into a ‘dead end street’.
…It tears families apart.
…It steals people’s lives.
…It causes damage (brain damage) to people’s healthy brains.
(usually after months and/or years of psychiatric medication use)
…It causes people’s psychological problems to become permanent.
(It causes natural psychological problems to become permanent.)
…It causes domestic violence.
…It causes violence, murder and suicide in society.
(It disturbs the social peace.)
…It causes many different permanent physical diseases in people’s bodies.
(Cancer, akathisia, tardive disc, down syndrome, diabetes etc.)
…It causes people to die due to both mental and physical illnesses.
And
…It causes people to stay in ‘mental hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, mentally disabled rehabilitation centers, nursing and retirement homes’ until they die (for the rest of their lives) due to permanent brain damage.
Shall we count more? The damages caused by courts (court decisions) to individuals and society are countless. Unfortunately.. Best regards…
With my sincerest wishes. 🙂 Y.E. (Researcher blog writer (Blogger))
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I appreciate your comment, however I don’t think that the mental health system causes Down Syndrome.
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Dear Jane. B,
Of course, there are many different causes of Down syndrome. One of these is psychiatric medications.
And… There doesn’t seem to be much difference between Down syndrome and Autism.
“In fact, about 16-18% of people with Down syndrome also have autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Richards et al., 2015). ”
https://www.autismspeaks.org/down-syndrome-and-autism-spectrum-disorder-ds-asd
And.. If psychotropic drugs cause Autism, they can also cause Down syndrome. Why shouldn’t it be?
“Different psychoactive substances have profound neurodevelopmental consequences, such as structural brain changes, poor attention span, Down syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, imbalances in neurotransmitter levels and many structural deficits.”
Psychotropic drug abuse in pregnancy and its impact on child neurodevelopment: A review
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8771314/
Best regards, 🙂 Y.E.
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Downs syndrome what do you think causes it.
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If I’m not incorrect, I recall from my research somewhere, learning that the entire way “Family Court” is structured is bad, for example, there are no juries. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
But, then again, the entire maritime legal system (as opposed to common law, which we are supposed to have in the US, but don’t) is convoluted. This guy does a good job of explaining this in his “foundational knowledge” section.
https://awarriorcalls.com
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You don’t have to wind up in Family Court for psychiatric labels to be used as weapons—that’s the nature of the instrument.
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Very true, they’re being used as weapons by pastors, bishops, and by dysfunctional families, et al.
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They are destructive, whether intended or not.
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Great article, very well written and an important issue. Having worked in several Community Mental health clinics, which are funded by Medicaid/state insurance and therefore serve individuals living at or below the poverty level, I will say that many people who accumulate mental health diagnoses and intensive treatment, are not necessarily more ‘mentally ill’ or ‘severe’ or ‘dysfunctional’ than those who never seek treatment, but will end up in the system due to extreme desperate circumstances brought on by their poverty. For example, I worked with one woman who was in her 60s and who was struggling with homelessness. She was actually a very mentally stable person, considering everything she’d been through. She and her boyfriend lived in a small standalone garage during the warmer months with no electricity or facilities. In the coldest months, they would make sure they had alcohol in their systems then check themselves into a 30 day inpatient rehab facility, because it was warm. Her kids were grown and she had grandkids, but if she had faced a custody situation, her rehab stays could have easily been used against her.
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I live in India and I’ve experienced it here as well. Hell, I’ve been derogatorily called genetically defective and a “schizophrenic” even before Psychiatry by a family member repeatedly. This is not a surprise at all. It’s a fact of life. It’s also a fact that Psychiatry graduates routinely deflect from in various ways to protect their career.
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