Reviews : Partisans and Mediators Gwynn Davis Oxford University Press, 1988. £25 hbk, 215pp
| Author | Nigel Stone |
| Published date | 01 March 1989 |
| Date | 01 March 1989 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/026455058903600108 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
27
Chapters
cover
topics
ranging
from
’Helping
Children
Cope
with
Divorce
and
Separation’
to
’Conflict
Manage-
ment
and
Concihation’.
By
virtue
of the
brevity
of
this
book,
some
promising
avenues,
once
identified,
are
not
ex-
plored
far,
leaving
this
reader
at
least
feehng
somewhat
frustrated.
However,
Mrs
Parkinson
touches
on
a
wide
range
of
issues
germane
to
practitioners
in
the
field
of
divorce
court
work,
and
I
feel
this
book
is
a
valuable
and
accessi-
ble
contribution
to
the
literature.
Liz
Bullingham
Court
Welfare
Officer,
Rotherham
Partisans
and
Mediators
Gwynn Davis
Oxford
University Press, 1988.
£25
hbk,
215pp.
1988
was
certamly
a
cracking
year
for
the
author
with
three
books
harvesting
fruits
of
eight
years
in
a
rich
seam
of
socio-legal
study.
Access
to
Agreement
(Open
University
Press)
and
Grounds
for
Divorce
(Oxford
University
Press)
will
be
reviewed
later,
but
here
is
the
extended
platform
for
research-
inspired
ideas
on
divorce
which
have
already
stimulated
and
infuriated
read-
ers
of
this
and
other
journals.
With
a
deft
weave
of
’the
literature’,
consumer
feedback
and
punchy
analy-
sis,
Davis
dissects
the
processing
of
di-
vorce
disputes
through
the
hands
of
lawyers
and
welfare
officers
and
con-
cludes
that
they
operate
an
unholy
alliance
which
is
more
geared
to
coer-
cive
settlement-seeking,
cost
saving,
and
admimstrative
efficiency,
rather
than
to
just
and
sensitive
resolution.
His
thesis
is
that
divorcing
couples
should
have
ample
access
to
good
out-
of-court
’party
controlled’
mediation
services,
backed,
if
resolution
proves
imposible,
by
a
right
to
have
a
full-
fledged
judicial
determination.
Loose
notions
of
conciliation
have
fudged
and
rationed
the
process,
leaving
many
par-
ties
fatigued,
frustrated
and
denied
their
legal
rights.
The
limitations
of
the
court
welfare
officer
and
recent
attempts
to
give
that
task
more
integrity
get
extended
atten-
tion :
the
standardised
articles
of
faith
which
are
the
tools
of
trade;
the
power
and
stigma
of
the
investigation;
the
re-
luctance
beyond
the
rhetoric
to
engage
in
joint
meetings
with
the
parties;
the
embrace
of
unproven
and
esoteric
ideologies
of
family
functioning
im-
posed
upon
baffled
consumers.
The
quantitative
research
basis
for
these
observations
may
not
be
conclusively
strong
but
the
qualitative
picture
is
rec-
ognisable,
instructive
and
persuasive.
Nigel
Stone
Court
Welfare
Team,
Norwich
Users
and Abusers
of
Psychiatry
Lucy Johnstone
Routledge,
1989,
pbk,
270pp
The
considerable
overlap
between
Probation
and
Psychiatry
makes
it
essential
for
probation
officers
to
have
a
good
understanding
of
how
the
psychiatric
system
works.
Here,
de-
tailed
case
histories
combined
with
lucid
argument
emphasise
the
limita-
tions
of
medical
model
psychiatry.
Whilst
some
of
the
arguments
may
be
familiar,
the
author
presents
a
cohe-
rent,
radical
approach
to
practice
which
takes
as
its
starting
point
the
psychiatric
system
as
it
is
and
not
as
she
would
like
it
to
be.
In
so
doing,
Johnstone
provides
an
alternative
so-
cial
and
theoretical
framework
from
which
probation
officers
can
draw
in
their
work
with
’mentally
ill’
clients.
This
can
be
seen
in
the
discussion
of
themes
such
as
client
responsibility
and
the
role
of
the
’helper’.
In
Psychiat-
ry,
as
in
Probation,
defining
the
bound-
aries
of
the
professional
role
is
essen-
tial
if
the
dual
pitfalls
of
blaming
or
fostering
dependency
in
clients
are
to
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