Coping With Divorce: The Clinical View

Originally published in Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 1981, Vol 26(3), 195–196. Reviews the book, Surviving the Breakup: How Children and Parents Cope With Divorce by Judith S. Wallerstein and Joan Berlin Kelly (1980). This book is a fitting culmination to a long and productive collaboration and is superbly organized and written. It describes from the points of view of both parents and children the separation, the immediate post-separation period, the postdivorce transition period, and the long term consequences. The reader will find it almost impossible to locate the hypotheses that have been generated- a fact that seriously reduces the usefulness of their work as a scientific enterprise. Wallerstein and Kelly's volume represent the richest source of clinical material now in existence on this topic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)