Reviews : Chasing Rainbows: Children, Divorce and Loss Brynna Kroll Russell House Publishing, 1994; pp180; £13.95 pbk
| Author | Brian Cantwell |
| Published date | 01 September 1994 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455059404100311 |
| Date | 01 September 1994 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
162
Chasing
Rainbows:
Children,
Divorce
and
Loss
Brynna
Kroll
Russell
House
Publishing,
1994;
pp180;
£13.95
pbk
Dr
Kroll
spent
12
years
in
the
Service,
working
as
a
probation
officer,
a
court
welfare
officer
specialist
and
a
guardian
ad
litem,
before
becoming
a
social
work
teacher.
The
book
is
written
around
a
PhD,
upon
which
she
worked
for
9
years,
and
illustrates
her
own
child-
centred
approach
to
the
welfare
officer’s
assessment
and
court
report
writing
task.
Kroll
has
produced
a
vivid
and
readable
account
of
her
direct
work
with
children,
completed
by
a
formidable
collection
of
references.
She
describes
herself
as
using
’a
combination
of
psychodynamic
concepts
rooted
in
Kleinian
and
object
relations
theory,
and
attachment
and
mourning
theory’
(p175).
It
is
surprising
that,
in
arguing
that
the
welfare
officer’s
role
can
include
short-term
therapeutic
work
with
children,
Kroll
finds
no
place
for
brief
therapy’s
significant
contribution
over
recent
years.
Four
useful
typologies
are
offered
in
relation
to
some
children’s
adaptation
to
the
conflictual
separation
of
their
parents.
In
describing
’the
parental’,
’the
despairing’,
’the
retreating’,
and
’the
angry
child’,
the
author
puts
forward
a
convincing
proposition
that
all
four
represent
’protective
states
of
’being’
at
a
difficult
time’
(p166),
related
to
the
child’s
experience
of
mourning
and
loss.
A
generous
number
of
case
study
examples
are
offered
under
each
typology
which
should
be
of
particular
interest
to
students
or
to
newcomers
to
the
welfare
officer
role.
The
chapter
summaries
in
this
section
are
valuable
aide-memoirs
to
anyone
in
the
field.
Though
the
book
contains
a
wealth
of
material
that
can
be
drawn
into
court
welfare
officers’
practice,
it
covers
an
ambitiously
wide
range
in
less
than
200
pages,
as
a
result
failing
to
do
justice
to
all
the
issues
raised.
Welfare
officers
using
a
family
systems
approach
to
identify
the
child’s
best
interest
are,
for
example,
criticized
for
marginalizing
the
child
-
and
making
professional
assessments
based
on
one
interview.
No
direct
evidence
for
this
judgement
is
presented,
nor
any
clear
explanation
of
the
nature
of
her
own
research
(from
which
she
draws
a
host
of
general
conclusions) .
The
reader
is
left
with
the
impression
of
a
generous
(pre-cash
limits?)
Service,
and
a
less
pressured
mode
of
practice.
I
could
not
see
how,
otherwise,
she
could
countenance
(albeit
in
one
exceptional
instance)
paying
four
home
visits
to
the
child
(two
to
each
home),
as
a
preliminary
to
embarking
on
an
unspecified
number
of
office
sessions
(pl48)
-
whilst
claiming
that
her
approach
’was
never
a
cause
for
complaint
either
by
the
agency
or
the
Courts,
since
the
delay
was
generally
negligible’
(pl68).
In
accusing
many
colleagues
of
avoiding
direct
work
with
children
and
their
pain,
Kroll
fails
to
recognise
the
extent
of
developing
support
and
monitoring
systems,
beyond
formal
supervision;
co-work,
consultancy
and
a
team
approach
are
given
the
barest
of
mentions.
Indeed,
her
rather self-centred
accounts
left
me
feeling
that
she
not
only
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