Narcissistic Personality Disorder
It’s not much fun going through family court proceedings if you’re dealing with a narcissistic personality disorder or someone exhibiting narcissistic traits. Narcissism is something we’ve looked at in the past and so far there hasn’t been a great deal of research on how narcissism interacts with the family law system in Australia. But in the US, researchers have taken a closer look at the issues, and came up with some recommendations for policy makers.
The Santa Clara University School of Law researchers interviewed family lawyers, judges and custody evaluators on factors associated with high-conflict personalities such as people with narcissistic personality disorder or narcissistic traits.
Most family law litigation is settled before final hearing with only the most contested disputes going all the way. Of these matters, a disproportionate amount involve litigants with high-conflict personalities including those with narcissistic traits or narcissistic personality disorder. Such individuals’ typically complicated matters tend to drag on for years, clogging up the system, and involving multiple fillings and delays. Legal fees skyrocket and everyone has to spend a lot of time and energy on the matter, with legal and judicial staff experiencing burnout and turnover during cases.
Researchers define Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder: “A mental condition in which a person has an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, troubled relationships, and a lack of empathy for others.”
Associated with the disorder are traits such as feeling invincible and resisting settlement negotiations in favour of protracted disputes, which obviously impact on proceedings.
When such individuals enter the family court system, it can have disastrous consequences for everybody. The adversarial system suits a narcissist’s “winner takes all” mentality and they proceed to cause a lot of emotional and financial harm for their exes and usually their children as well. Children in particular suffer the effects of long-winded disputes, so speeding up the family law process is a much-needed aspect of family law reform.
Even family law professionals can be affected, for example solicitors who have clients with narcissistic traits may struggle with having to rein in their client’s unrealistic or inflated expectations.
How do family courts view narcissistic personality disorder and narcissism?
Often a litigant might behave in a way that indicates they possess narcissistic personality disorder traits, other times they may actually have a formal diagnosis of NPD. But the courts care less about whether someone has a formal diagnosis and more about whether their narcissistic behaviour impacts on the welfare of the child.
For example a recent case in the family courts included an assessment of whether the father suffered from narcissistic personality disorder and if so, what was the impact of that or of his personality traits on his parenting capacity. But the court noted it was not “necessary to make a positive finding that the father has a narcissistic personality disorder, although [psychiatrist] Dr C seems to consider it likely. With or without a formal diagnosis of such a disorder, the fact remains that the father has a number of personality traits which compromise his capacity to appropriately parent the child.”
The US researchers say their new work includes recommendations for how to improve dealings with high conflict individuals in family court, centring around guidance and education on how to run cases for judicial staff, as well as how to recognise and deal with high-conflict personalities and how they impact on cases. Other suggestions include having a higher rotation for judicial staff to avoid burnout. Also, given the fact that narcissists really enjoy the court process, seeing the courtroom as their stage, even something as relatively minor as changing judicial procedures could have an impact. Judges can remove a bit of a narcissist’s “stage” by encouraging information procedures such as in-chambers conferences, try to avoid formal court hearings.
Family law systems around the world, including here in Australia, constantly undergo cycles of reform, however aside from major structural changes that may be identified as being needed in family law systems, the American researchers feel in the meantime, incremental changes can already be made. For example, improving aspects of the judicial system and legal education.
Source: MercuryNews
Do you need family law advice? For help, contact Canberra family lawyer Cristina Huesch or one of our other experienced solicitors here at Alliance Family Law on (02) 6223 2400.
Please note our blogs are not legal advice. For information on how to obtain the correct legal advice, please contact Alliance Family Law.
