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Lesson 4: What is Psychological Incapaci ...

Lesson 4: What is Psychological Incapacity?

May 04, 2021

Husband 1 is an alcoholic
Husband 2 is a womanizer.
Husband 3 has a temper and beats his wife black and blue from time to time.
Without any other description given of each husband, which one is psychologically incapacitated?

NONE. Psychological incapacity is not alcoholism. It is not womanizing. It is not a bad temper.

Psychological incapacity is a mental state of INABILITY TO COMPREHEND. Let me try to illustrate it this way.

Say you have a 2-year-old child playing on the floor. You give the child a very expensive diamond bracelet. Will the child be able to understand the value of the bracelet? Or will he take it as just one of his toys?

The child will not understand the value of the diamond bracelet. To him, it is no more valuable than the rubber ducky that he plays with in his inflatable pool.

The illustration may be a little too simplistic, but the point is this: a psychologically incapacitated person who marries will regard marriage the same way the 2-year-old child will regard the diamond bracelet. He will have no idea - at all - of its meaning or value, and will not realize that he has obligations in relation to it.

So, just because a husband is alcoholic, or a womanizer, or has a temper, does not AUTOMATICALLY mean he is psychologically incapacitated. If the husband understands his responsibilities towards his spouse, and performs them, his alcoholism, etc. will be mere FLAWS in his character. It will not make him psychologically incapacitated.

If I am the court, and you file the case before me, I will deny the prayer for annulment and instead require the husband to see a shrink.

How do you get around this? This is more for your lawyer than for you, but it will help if you understand.

To get around this, you must argue that the flaw comes from your husband's INABILITY TO COMPREHEND his obligations as a married individual. That as a married individual, he is obliged to treat his spouse with love and respect, and he totally misses that because of this inability, hence the alcoholism, the womanizing, or the battering, whichever is the case.

Make sure your lawyer puts that in your complaint, and make sure your psychiatrist mentions that in his report. Otherwise, you will not have a chance.

Psychological incapacity is hard to allege, and even harder to prove.

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