Skip to main content
Article
A Strategy for Teaching Objectivity to the Domestic Relations Student: Utilizing Psychodrama to Explore Attorney Empathy Toward Improving Family Law Outcomes
Forthcoming, Ohio Northern University Law Review (2013)
  • Bruce L. Beverly
Abstract

The basic domestic relations law course is often taught by the casebook method, with little reference to actual underlying human drama. In order to produce effective advocates, it is necessary for student to be brought out of the sterile case recitation model and into a role where the student experiences, in a controlled and directed fashion, some of the hardships faced by the players in a family law case. This article proposes that, in line with new emphasis on experiential learning and alternate learning styles, one might employ a psychodramatic approach to teaching the domestic relations course, in order to allow the student/practitioner to reach a state of informed "objective" empathy thereby creating better and more effective advocates.

Keywords
  • domestic relations,
  • family law,
  • legal education,
  • empathy,
  • psychodrama
Publication Date
2013
Citation Information
Bruce L. Beverly. "A Strategy for Teaching Objectivity to the Domestic Relations Student: Utilizing Psychodrama to Explore Attorney Empathy Toward Improving Family Law Outcomes" Forthcoming, Ohio Northern University Law Review (2013)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/bruce_beverly/5/