The Best Interests of the Child: The Least Detrimental Alternative

by Joseph Goldstein, Albert J. Solnit, Sonja Goldstein, Anna Freud

Overview

In The Best Interests of the Child, published between 1973 and 1986, the authors speak in one voice in concluding that the continuity of care - continuity of a child's relationship with his or her adult caregiver - is a universal essential to the child's well-being.

The authors stress that minimizing intrusions by the law is paramount to safeguarding the child's growth and development. The least detrimental alternative - the authors overarching guideline for assuring the continuity of the psychological parent-child relationship - has been cited in more than a thousand child custody cases since 1973.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780684835464
Publisher:	Free Press
Publication date:	02/08/1998
Edition description:	Revised and Updated
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Joseph Goldstein has been leading insight and loving-kindness meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. He is a cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Massachusetts, where he continues as one of the resident guiding teachers. In 1989, together with several other teachers and students, he established the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and, later, The Forest Refuge. A seminal figure in the emergence of Buddhism in the West, Joseph is the author of numerous books including One Dharma. He lives in Barre, Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

This consolidation of a classic trilogy (Beyond the Best Interests of the Child, 1980; Before the Best Interests of the Child, 1984; and In the Best Interests of the Child, 1986) that first appeared 23 years ago concerns the welfare of children in contested relationships. Rather than the familiar legal "best interests of the child" doctrine, this work is grounded in the more realistic standard of finding the "least detrimental alternative." The eminent authors, including Yale law professor Goldstein and the late Anna Freud, discuss the needs of "Baby Richard" and other children forced into the legal system, the conditions that warrant state intervention, and the ethical conduct of professionals who function in the system. Their analysis combines psychoanalytic theories with legal examinations. Because laws vary by jurisdiction, the book serves as a general guide for those involved in placement decisions. Many conclusions, including rejections of custodial arrangements involving forced visitation and the unquestioned primacy of birth parents, are controversial. Still, the book is tightly argued and well presented, and the updated references are very useful. For family law collections; libraries that hold only some of the earlier editions should consider this economic consolidation.-Antoinette Brinkman, Southwest Indiana Mental Health Ctr. Lib., Evansville

Library Journal