Stahl & Simon 2013 – Simon & Stahl 2020 – “far from mature”

In 2013, Stahl & Simon wrote the first edition of their book on conducting forensic custody evaluations. In 2020, Simon & Stahl wrote their second edition of their book.

Their 2020 book says the same thing as their 2013 book. As a sub-specialty field of psychology, Simon and Stahl indicate that forensic psychology has made no progress in the past decade.

Simon & Stahl acknowledge the lack of progress since 2013, and that the field’s development is immature and remains in its adolescence.

In 2013, Stahl & Simon said that forensic psychology was just entering its adolescence and was far from mature.

In 2020, Simon and Stahl said exactly the same thing regarding the current status of forensic psychology.

Stahl & Simon (in 2013): “As a formal and organized field, forensic psychology has entered its adolescence, but it is far from mature.” (p. 17)

Simon & Stahl (in 2020): “As a formal and organized field, forensic psychology has entered it’s adolescence, but it is far from mature.” (p. 17)

How long will forensic psychology remain an immature field?

Clinical psychology is a fully mature field embedded in the foundational principles of the healthcare system – the diagnosis and treatment of pathology.

Forensic psychology in the family courts developed 40 years ago as a new sub-specialty field created for a single population. No other pathology has their own “special” psychologists, just parents and children in the family courts.

Forensic psychology has had 40 years of developmental time from the 1980s to 2020s. Yet by their own admission they are still in their “adolescence” and are “far from mature.”

They are not even CLOSE to being a mature field of professional psychology – by their own admission they are FAR from mature – and they have made NO progress toward becoming more mature in the past decade.

They are stagnant in their development.

Forensic psychology in the family courts is a failed model of service delivery to a vulnerable population. Clinical psychology needs to return to court-involved child custody conflict.

From Simon & Stahl (2020): “This illustrates the reality that as an organized field and as an organized, systematic approach to behavioral science, forensic psychology remains in its formative years… forensic psychology is truly a new field…” (p. 17)

According to Simon & Stahl, “forensic psychology is truly a new field” in 2020.

In 2013, Stahl & Simon provided the following description of forensic psychology in the family courts:

Stahl & Simon (2013): “These facts serve to illustrate the reality that as an organized field, and as an organized systematic approach to behavioral science, forensic psychology remains in its formative years…. forensic psychology is truly a new field…” (p. 17-18)

According to Simon & Stahl, forensic psychology has made no progress in the past decade and continues to remain in a FORMATIVE phase of development… after 40 years and countless thousands of destroyed families – they are still a “new” field.

They are experimenting on you.

Forensic psychology in the family courts is a failed experiment in service delivery to a vulnerable population. Clinical psychology is a fully established and grounded professional field. Clinical psychology needs to return to court-involved child custody conflict.

In all cases of child attachment pathology surrounding court-involved child custody conflict, a proper risk assessment for possible child abuse need to be conducted to the appropriate differential diagnosis for each parent.

Either the targeted parent is abusing the child, thereby creating the child’s attachment pathology toward that parent,

Or the allied parent is psychologically abusing the child by creating a shared persecutory delusion and false (factitious) attachment pathology in the child for the secondary gain of manipulating the court’s decisions regarding child custody, and to meet the parent’s own emotional and psychological needs.

I sure wish we had a shorter label for the pathology of the allied parent so I wouldn’t have to write it all out each time. But until the paradigm shifts and knowledge returns to professional practice, I will write out the pathology in detail each time.

Clinical psychology is a fully mature field that is entirely grounded in the principles of the healthcare system – the diagnosis and treatment of pathology.

Diagnosis means exactly the same thing as the word identify.

Pathology means exactly same thing as the word problem.

Treatment means exactly the same thing as fix it.

Clinical psychologists are doctors in the healthcare system. We identify what the problem is and we fix it. We diagnose what the pathology is and we treat it. In all of healthcare, diagnosis guides treatment, the treatment for cancer is different than the treatment for diabetes.

Is it cancer or diabetes? We need a clinical diagnostic risk assessment for possible child abuse to the appropriate differential diagnosis for each parent.

Clinical psychology needs to return to court-involved child custody conflict. We need to accurately identify what the problem is and we need to fix it.

From Simon & Stahl (2020): “Professionals whose formal training emphasizes their helping role and whose motivation for becoming a mental health professional in the first place often revolves around a desire to help those in distress must reorient themselves to a new reality. FMHPs [forensic mental health professionals] are not there to help those they evaluate.” (p. 19)

From Simon & Stahl (2020): “The evaluator is, in reality, an agent of the state.” (p. 18).

From Simon & Stahl (2020): “The forensic role is a non-helper role. The evaluating FMHP [forensic mental health professional] is not involved in services that have as a goal the alleviation of suffering or discomfort.” (p. 26)

Forensic psychologists are not there to help the child or the parent. That is not their goal. Nor is their goal to alleviate the suffering of the child or parent. They openly state that.

They do something different. After 40 years of not helping parents and children from their non-helper roles as agents of the state, their approach to doing something different remains “far from mature.”

Forensic psychology is a failed experiment in service delivery to a vulnerable population. Clinical psychology needs to return to court-involved child custody conflict.

Craig Childress, Psy.D.
Clinical Psychologist, CA PSY 18857