In the Best Interests of the Child...

In the Best Interests of the Child by Joseph Epstein, Anna Freud, Albert J. Solnit and Sonja Goldstein (Free Press: $16.95).

Solomon’s wisdom is sorely needed in deciding difficult custody and adoption cases, in placing children in foster homes or returning them to their natural parents. Third in a series by the late Anna Freud, a social worker and distinguished law professor, and others, this book describes instances where judges, lawyers, psychiatrists and other non-parent experts, in choosing “the least harmful alternative” for a child, go beyond their area of expertise.

This mingling of personal judgment with professional training has led to disastrous results. In Rose vs. Rose, Jason was granted to his mother, once hospitalized for a suicide attempt, because the trial judge initially found the father’s appearances and behavior personally distasteful. When Jason floundered in maternal custody, the judge reversed himself. In the death of Maria Colwell, whose murder by her stepfather was investigated by a commission, a social worker misread the child’s terror and failed to consult a psychologist.

Important Appendixes

Two important appendixes illustrate unfortunate public intervention in private lives. The first, Stephen Jay Gould’s “Carrie Buck’s Daughter,” discusses the forced-sterilization policy of the state of Virginia during the ‘20s. Carrie Buck, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes ruled, was both “the daughter of a feeble-minded mother and mother of an illegitimate feeble-minded child.” More enlightened times found these charges untrue, but cruel damage was done.

The second example, from the “Autobiography of Malcolm X,” illustrates how “the Welfare” in Michigan broke up the future black leader’s family by harassment and separating the children. Malcolm X concludes: “I truly believe that if ever a state social agency destroyed a family, it destroyed ours.”