ABSTRACT
T.S.Eliot (1888-1965), ‘East Coker’ The last chapter focused on the ways and means of intervening during the divorce and remarriage processes outside the legal context, though often in its shadow. The differences between the various types of intervention were discussed and some comparisons were drawn, particularly between psychotherapy, family therapy and mediation. The primary emphasis in this chapter will be on the ways in which the couple are empowered to retain autonomous decision-making, whether (as indicated by Mnookin and Kornhauser 1979) in the shadow of or within the legal system, by the two main disciplines which work within it-the divorce court welfare service and family solicitors-and to which each of the partners turn in their conflict. Although there has in many ways been a move towards participant justice (Murch 1980), there is still much to be said for finding ways in which the right to the private domain of family life could be better protected even when a family complaint becomes a public issue-as it does, for example, when the matter of custody and access for the children is considered during the divorce process. The concluding section will also briefly raise the question of how the family conflict can become mirrored by the professionals whose differing tasks are all connected with divorce as a public issue and yet, through lack of understanding, failures of
cooperation, miscommunication and even competitiveness among themselves, often exacerbate the conflicts and pain of their clientele.
