ABSTRACT
However, in all domestic relations cases, the goal, whether from the standpoint of a custody evaluator, a guardian ad litem (GAL), or the court, and even sometimes counsel for the parties, is to have an understanding of the realities of the situation rather than resting upon the perspectives or distortions of those realities as they may be presented by the parties. Distortions come about not only from conscious desires to achieve certain ends, but perhaps more largely through the unconscious operations that are characteristic of human functioning. People generally see the world in ways
compatible with their pre-existing assumptions, their goals and history, and their expectations.
