Some psychologists are bad news

Someone suggested a reason for my ex-wife submitting a printout of this blog to the court-appointed psychologist. He said that I've made some disparaging remarks about psychologists here, and that my ex-wife is hoping that Dr. Inkblot may take personal offense and write a bad report about me as a way of punishing me.

I hope not. Dr. Inkblot seems more professional than that.

I don't think that all of the folks who write reports for the family court are bad. I mainly know about the six that I have seen. The one before Dr. Inkblot wrote a pretty good report. She was appointed by the court, and she said that I was an excellent father who should immediately get my kids back. A couple of the others were extremely professional, and wrote solid reports. I haven't attacked them.

The worst report was from Dr. Bret K. Johnson. Johnson describes himself as an "out gay man" and his specialty is in helping gay men get out of the closet. He wrote a self-help book on the subject, and he has a lot of kooky views. As far as I have been able to determine, he has no experience or expertise at all in marriage, child-rearing, parenting, child custody, child psychology, or any other related subject.

Dr. Johnson interviewed me for an hour, my ex-wife for an hour, and the kids for about 20 minutes each. He asked me a bunch of mundane and trivial questions such as whether I brush their teeth or clean the house. About half-way thru, I remarked that he hadn't asked me anything about my ex-wife's allegations. I suggested that he take a couple of her most serious allegations, tell me his concerns, and let me respond. He refused. In retrospect, it seems clear that he had his mind made up, and had no interest in the facts. I wonder whether he is even capable of discussing a child-rearing issue.

Dr. Johnson is a fussy gay man who seemed more interested in hair and food than anything else. He made a derogatory comment about my own hair at the start of the interview. His written report mentioned hair 8 times. He was also preoccupied with the fact that I sometimes fed the kids oatmeal for breakfast, and broccoli as the dinner vegetable. He seemed to think that there was something bad about oatmeal and broccoli, and his report mentioned them 7 times. I could never figure out what he had against oatmeal and broccoli. These are good and healthy foods, and the kids like them.

I later learned that Dr. Johnson has a personal hatred for my mom.

I plan to write an essay detailing what was wrong with Dr. Johnson's report. It will be a long essay. It is my opinion that Dr. Johnson should never be allowed to testify in family court, and that he should never be allowed near children.

Dr. Johnson never found anything substantive against me. His recommendation 6D was:

Alternatively, with the parents' agreement, they may wish to consider a 5-2-2-5 joint time share, with Father being responsible for the children every Monday and Tuesday and Mother being responsible for the children every Wednesday and Thursday.

He couldn't have thought that I was that bad of a father, if he recommended 50-50 time share. Nevertheless, Judge Kelsay used his report as an excuse to take away the kids, without any hearing.

So, yes, I have a low opinion of some psychologists. I also have a low opinion of whatever oversight the court uses, because it is continuing to allow Dr. Johnson to ruin people's lives.