As a domestic relations mediator and Guardian ad
Litem, I frequently see parties and attorneys bandying about the concepts of "attachment" and "attachment disorder" for greater leverage in the dispute, and "[t]he concept of attachment can readily tip the scales in custody and parenting-time cases involving infants and young children." See Pamela S. Ludolph & Mildred D. Dale, Attachment in Child Custody: An Additive Factor, Not a Determinative One, Family Law Quarterly, Vol. 46, No. 1, Spring 2012. However, as Ludolph & Dale detail, "attachment is often incompletely understood in both the legal and mental health communities."
