Understanding Psychological Incapacity as Ground for Annulment

Psychological incapacity is often used as ground for annulment in the Philippines. But what do you know about it? What constitutes psychological incapacity? First, a mere refusal of a spouse to attend to his or her obligations is not within the scope of psychological incapacity. In fact, vices and philandering are not even enough to use as grounds. Needless to say, the marriage remains if the petitioner or the one who filed for petition failed to prove that the marriage could no longer continue despite the vices and philandering. Unfair it may seem, a spouse in an abusive marriage may be stuck in the marriage if psychological incapacity as ground for annulment in the Philippines was not met.  

But you may ask, what constitutes psychological incapacity? If irreconcilable differences, sexual infidelity or perversion, emotional immaturity, conflicting personalities, physical abuse, habitual drug use and alcoholism, and abandonment, were identified and sufficiently proven by an expert that led to the impossibility of continuance of the marriage, psychological incapacity can then be used as ground for annulment in the Philippines. To emphasize, a medical expert in the field of psychology is needed to determine that the said differences actually constitutes psychological incapacity.

Hence, it is crucial that the findings of a psychologist after interviews and evaluation of the petitioner is crucial to determine psychological incapacity. The petitioner will share vivid details on instances or situations that show irreconcilable differences, sexual infidelity or perversion, emotional immaturity, conflicting personalities, physical abuse, habitual drug use and alcoholism, and abandonment.

Thus, merely enumerating the said differences will not be enough, but a narration on the specific differences and its physical, emotional and psychological effects to the petitioner must be revealed as well. To simply put, the idiom ‘Don’t wash your dirty linens in public’ will not hold true since it is actually encouraged when determining psychological incapacity as grounds for annulment in the Philippines.