ABSTRACT
High-conflict parents in custody disputes are susceptible, to varying degrees, to the stresses of loss and rejection that are inherent in the divorce crisis and its aftermath. A few separating spouses are especially vulnerable by virtue of having experienced previous traumatic losses—such as the untimely death of a child, a parent, or a sibling—and they reexperience this earlier helplessness and grief along with the pain of the divorce (McClenney, Johnston, and Wallerstein, 1994; Bar, 1997; Johnston, 1998). More commonly, these vulnerable persons have never fully psychologically separated or individuated from their own primary caretakers because of early, pervasive emotional deprivation and childhood trauma. For them, the marital separation can trigger panic and intense anxiety about abandonment. When this happens, these parents cling to the child as a substitute for the ex-spouse or other lost object (Wallerstein, 1985; Garrity and Baris, 1994).
