Parental Alienation Syndrome

I picked up this information while reading through my many RSS feeds this evening.  It caught my attention due to the fact that I recently had a client who claimed this very thing was happening to him and his children.  Contained within an article in the State.com the writer gives the following information:  "Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) was first identified in the 1980s by Richard A. Gardner, a forensic psychiatrist who defined PAS as a disorder arising primarily in child custody disputes.  PAS, he said, features a child's unjustified campaign of denigration against a parent as a result of the other parent's brainwashing and the child's acting out his/her own scenarios of hatred against the vilified parent.  Gardner said he began to notice starting increases in the "disorder."  He said most PAS situations were initiated by mothers; however, with more fathers seeking custody of their children in recent years, experts say that fathers have begun instigation PAS because the law doesn't punish them for doing so."

The article goes on to state that PAS has been cited increasingly in court decisions about child custody, but those in the mental health circles continue to debate whether this disorder actually exists.  The PAS diagnosis is not included in the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Disorders (Fourth Edition), the bible of diagnoses for mental conditions.

I plan to do some more research on this subject and post additional information in the very near future. I too have seen this subject come up more often in my own practice as a reason the noncustodial parents are giving for their children not wanting to spend time with them.  So far, the judges in my area have not been convinced it is a viable answer to this problem.  I will reserve my own opinion until such time as I have had the opportunity to do more research.

Comments

[L. Stephens]

My children, and myself are victims of Parental Alienation, including but not limited to false allegations (PROVEN to be false and she was almost arrested for making them) of sexual abuse. I think that courts in all states should punish the parents practicing such horrid behavior. I am one of the lucky ones. After four years of my ex denying my parenting time with the kids, I won in court, and the contempt against her was upheld by the Ohio Fifth District Appeals Court. But it sure hasn't stopped her behavior even though I now am seeing the kids, and we have filed two more contempts against her. It is just a shame that when a divorce happens some people have to use the children as pawns for their own sick games. I feel deeply for all the kids out there still suffering at the hands of an alienating parent, male or female. I am not in your state, but wanted you to know that this is a REAL AND WORLDWIDE PROBLEM!! Thank you.