Content uploaded by Demosthenes Lorandos
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Demosthenes Lorandos on Jun 02, 2018
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
PARENTAL ALIENATION: The Handbook for Mental Health and Legal Professionals
Abstract
Parental Alienation: The Handbook for Mental Health and Legal Professionals is the essential “how to” manual in this important and ever increasing area of behavioral science and law. Busy mental health professionals need a reference guide to aid them in developing data sources to support their positions in reports and testimony. They also need to know where to go to find the latest material on a topic. Having this material within arm’s reach will avoid lengthy and time-consuming online research. For legal professionals who must ground their arguments in well thought out motions and repeated citations to case precedent, ready access to state or province specific legal citations spanning thirty-five years of parental alienation cases is provided here for the first time in one place.
... Furthermore, none of the writers quoted here provided an adequate source or a relevant reference for the misinformation they expressed; there is no source in the PA literature for the claims of these writers. For readers who need more background information, PA theory is explained comprehensively in Lorandos, Bernet, and Sauber (2013), Lorandos and Bernet (2020), and Warshak (2015). ...
... Also, there is a chart in a book by Lorandos, Bernet, and Sauber (2013) with the heading, "Criteria for the Diagnosis of Parental Alienation" (p. 17). ...
... While the recurrent misinformation discussed in this article may have been prompted by misreading and misunderstanding statements such as Gardner (2001) and Lorandos et al. (2013), there must have been additional factors that kept this woozle going for 27 years. It seems likely that PA critics have had negative preconceptions regarding this topic (e.g., "PA theory is deeply flawed."), ...
Misinformation regarding parental alienation theory has been published many times in journals and books since the 1980s. This article discusses a specific example of misinformation, i.e., variations of the statement: Parental alienation theory assumes that the favored parent has caused parental alienation in the child simply because the child refuses to have a relationship with the rejected parent, without identifying or proving alienating behaviors by the preferred parent. This is an unusual phenomenon, i.e., the same misinformation was found in journal articles, books, and presentations by critics of parental alienation 40 times between 1994 and 2020. This trail of recurrent misinformation is not trivial; it is a major misrepresentation of basic tenets of parental alienation theory. The article concludes with action items, including the proposal that these false statements should be corrected and/or the journal articles should be withdrawn from publication.
... Parents that use PABs often levy multiple false allegations of abuse towards the alienated parent (Harman & Lorandos, 2021;Hines et al., 2015;Lorandos, 2013;Lowenstein, 2012), which may be considered a form of legal and administrative aggression (Harman et al., 2018;Hines et al., 2015). Likewise, parents use PABs to make the child believe their other parent never loved them, abandoned them, and is unsafe (Harman et al., 2021). ...
PurposeParental alienating behaviors (PABs) are conceptualized by scholars as a form of family violence. Nonetheless, some critics have argued that it is the parent that is claiming to be the target of PABs that is the abusive parent. We explored this debate by comparing claims of abuse made against alienating and alienated parents. We predicted that perpetrators of PABs would have a history of co-occurring forms of abuse as part of a pattern of coercive control.Method
Trained coders, unaware of the study’s pre-registered hypotheses, identified claims of abuse from 492 US appellate case reports in which parental alienation was found to have occurred. Allegations of abuse were raised in 58.54% (288) of these cases, with 1,112 separate claims of abuse raised overall.ResultsParents who were found to have alienated their child(ren) by the court or a court-appointed professional had an 81.62% greater probability of having a substantiated claim of abuse against them, than parents alienated from their children. Moreover, alienated parents had an 86.05% greater likelihood of having an unsubstantiated abuse claim made against them compared to alienating parents.Conclusions
These findings lend support to the theory that PABs are part of a pattern of coercively controlling abuse. These behaviours must be recognized and addressed to ensure victims of abuse are provided with appropriate protection and treatment.
... Importantly, fathers spoke of behaviours which utilised children as vehicles for abuse, for example encouraging children to berate their father, or children being encouraged to lie or tell stories. Sadly, in some examples, this actually led to children becoming actively and independently abusive, arguably representing full completion of the alienation process as described by Lorandos et al. (2013). Many of the fathers described that they were fundamentally rejected by their child, supporting previous research showing that alienation leads to a lack of ambivalence in children towards parents (i.e., one parent is all good, one is all bad; Bernet et al., 2018). ...
Previous research has highlighted that when men describe their experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV), they frequently talk about the use of children by their abusive partners. The behaviors they describe align with descriptions of so-called parental alienation (PA) where children are coercively controlled to reject one (alienated) parent in favor of the other. The situation of alienating behaviors within intimate partner and family violence structures is one that has been proposed but rarely explicitly studied. This study analyzed qualitative responses to an online survey by 171 fathers who have experienced alienating behaviors within the context of IPV. Four themes were found: direct manipulation of contact (including relocation and control of contact), manipulation through systems (including false allegations, and court and school settings), manipulation of children (including lying directly to children about fathers and involving children in abuse), and the wider context of violence (including physical, psychological, and controlling behaviors). The experiences described by men are discussed in relation to the theoretical and practical relationship between IPV and PA and implications for the current debate around the use of PA within family court cases.
... La utilización del concepto «síndrome» requiere pruebas empíricas de que un conjunto de signos y síntomas emergen consistentemente relacionados entre sí; pruebas que ni Gardner ni sus seguidores pudieron exponer a la comunidad científica para dar soporte a las elucubraciones mentales en las que fundamentan su supuesto síndrome (Bernet, 2008;Bernet, von Boch-Galhau, Baker, & Morrison, 2010;Lorandos, Bernet, & Sauber, 2013), como muestran los análisis críticos de tales elucubraciones (Walker & Shapiro, 2010). Gardner había definido el SAP, como un trastorno infantil ligado al contexto de disputas por la custodia de los/as hijos/as menores cuando se produce una ruptura en la pareja, siendo su manifestación primaria el rechazo del/de la menor contra uno de los progenitores, como consecuencia de la campaña de denigración del progenitor alienante contra el progenitor alienado, coincidiendo su difusión en España con la promulgación de la custodia compartida (Ley 15/2005), en un contexto similar al de los EE.UU. ...
SUMARIO: 1. Introducción: la necesidad de un Conocimiento Situado. 2. Contexto de descubrimiento del SAP. 3. Contexto de Justificación del SAP. 3.1. Análisis de la justificación psicológica. 3.2. Análisis de la justificación jurídica. 4. Epílogo: pensando el SAP desde el Conocimiento Situado. «El desarrollo de la conciencia es la técnica de análisis más importante, es la estructura de organización, el método de la práctica y de la teoría del cambio social» (Catharine MacKinnon) 1. introducción: la necesidad de un conocimiento situado. La Filosofía de la Ciencia señala la importancia del contexto histórico en la generación de teorías o leyes científicas, hasta el punto de considerar imprescin-dible la incorporación de este contexto a la propia ley o teoría para comprenderla cabalmente. Las ideas científicas, como las ideas de cualquier tipo, no surgen de la nada ni se configuran en un vacío social al margen de valores e intereses. Las formas de conocimiento surgen de las particulares condiciones sociopolíticas de la vida de los sujetos que las producen y enuncian, como pusiera de relieve el materialismo histórico (Harnecker, 1972). En el panorama científico emergen y se desarrollan herramientas epistemológicas alternativas a las hegemónicas, que abordan la rea-lidad social desde la mirada de quien vive oprimido y marginado por ella. Así, por ejemplo, la Psicología de la Liberación (Liberation Psychology) cuestiona la validez de las teorías psicológicas hegemónicas, elaboradas en América del Norte y Europa, para dar cuenta de la experiencia psicosocial de las clases oprimidas latinoamerica-nas (Martín Baró, 1986). De igual modo, la Teoría del Punto de Vista (Standpoint Therory) emerge como una teoría crítica para explicar la parcialización sistemática del conocimiento, desde el androcentrismo y el sexismo dominantes en una socie
... The plausibility and acceptability of oversimplified beliefs, when presented to a system philosophically primed to accept them, is enhanced by familiarity with examples of those beliefs (familiarity bias) that come readily to mind (availability bias) (Tversky & Kahneman, 1973, 1974Zapf & Dror, 2017) and appear to resemble the instant case (representativeness bias; Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). These biases favor alienation because anecdotes that purport to show alienation are widely promulgated in readily accessible commercial books (e.g., Baker & Andre, 2013;Bernet & Freeman, 2013;Campbell, 2013;Clawar & Rivlin, 2013;Darnall, 2013;Lebow, 2013;Goldberg & Goldberg, 2013;Lorandos et al., 2013a). They have the familiarity and mental accessibility that appears to give them credibility when instant cases appear to resemble them. ...
Empirical research documents the risk that alienation allegations will prevail over child abuse allegations in custody cases despite evidence to the contrary (Silberg & Dallam, 2019 Silberg, J., & Dallam, S. (2019). Abusers gaining custody in family courts: A case series of overturned decisions. Journal of Child Custody, 16(2), 140–169. https://doi.org/10.1080/15379418.2019.1613204[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Milchman, 2017a Milchman, M. S. (2017a). Misogyny in NYS custody decisions with parental alienation versus child sexual abuse allegations. Journal of Child Custody, 14(4), 234–259. https://doi.org/10.1080/15379418.2017.1416723[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). This article analyzes oversimplified beliefs, implicit or explicit, about alienation that support such practice. Professionals demonstrate oversimplified beliefs that lend unjustified credibility to alienation claims when they assert or imply that they observed alienation directly rather than inferring it from behavioral observations; that their inferences are unambiguous in their meaning; and that the validity of their inferences is not compromised by difficult-to-detect risks to the child (Milchman et al., 2020 Milchman, M. S., Geffner, R., & Meier, J. S. (2020). Rhetoric replaces evidence and reasoning in parental alienation literature and advocacy: A critique. Family Court Review, 58(2), 340–361.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). They support these oversimplified beliefs when they claim that suggestibility research calls the validity of abuse interpretations of the behaviors they observed into question. The adversarial nature of the legal system in the U.S. and other countries encourages acceptance of oversimplified beliefs about alienation because blaming one parent for the child’s rejection of the other is consistent with legal concepts of personal responsibility and with legal remedies that directly control the behavior of the person deemed responsible (Meier, 2022 Meier, J. (2022). Questioning the scientific validity of parental alienation labels in abuse cases. In J. Mercer and M. Drew (Eds.), Challenging parental alienation: New directions for professionals and parents. Routledge. [Google Scholar]). A forthcoming companion article discusses empirical findings related to alienation claims that these oversimplified beliefs support.
Background
Adver Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Parental Alienation (PA)are forms of adverse events negatively affecting children globally. The current study was to identify a revised ACEs measure that includes a screening item for PA.
Methods
A total of 231 undergraduate students, ages 18 to 37, were surveyed for this analysis. A factor analyses was performed to identify what PA item, out of four, would correlate most strongly with existing ACEs scale items. Convergent and divergent validity was assessed. An exploratory factory analyses was conducted to identify factor structure of scale items and a confirmatory factory analysis of extracted factors was used to assess model fit.
Results
Over half (60%) of the sampled population reported at least one ACEs item. All four PA items were significantly correlated with converging constructs (r = .68, p < .01). Out of four PA items, one PA item significantly outperformed the other three items in relation to convergent validity and was used to create a new ACEs-PA scale item (r = .33, p < .01). A two factor solution was identified with the new PA item loading, accounting for 35% of the variance, explaining more variance in both outcomes (R2 = .43 and R2 = .16) than the original ACEs scale when comparing the adjusted R2 values (R2 = .35 and R2 = .13 ).
Conclusion
Within the population, the new PA item factored significantly with existing ACEs, suggesting the capture of an additional adverse childhood experience.
Eltern-Kind-Entfremdung stellt für die davon betroffenen Kinder und Jugendlichen eine schwerwiegende Beeinträchtigung ihres psychischen Wohlbefindens und eine schwere Belastung für eine ausgeglichene sozial-emotionalen Entwicklung dar, die ihr seelisches Wohl gefährden kann (§ 1666 BGB). Sie ist gleichzeitig eine Verletzung der Rechte des Kindes und beider Elternpersonen auf ungehinderten Kontakt (§§ 1626, 1684 BGB) sowie des Rechtes von Kindern und Jugendlichen auf die Förderung ihrer Entwicklung zu selbstbestimmten, eigenverantwortlichen und gemeinschaftsfähigen Persönlichkeiten (§ 1 SGB VIII). Jugendämter, Familienberatungsstellen und Familiengerichte stehen bei drohender oder eingetretener Eltern-Kind-Entfremdung im Zusammenhang elterlicher Trennungen in der Pflicht, bindungserhaltend und konfliktreduzierend einzugreifen (§ 18 SGB VIII, §§ 156, 157 FamFG). Der Jugendhilfe und dem Familiengericht stehen dazu
bereits jetzt eine Reihe von Instrumenten für eine wirksame Intervention zur Verfügung. Die Bereitschaft, proaktiv zu handeln, und das Zusammenwirken aller drei Institutionen ist dabei entscheidend für den Erfolg. Zur Prävention von Bindungsabbrüchen und psychischer Entfremdung zwischen Kindern und Eltern im Kontext elterlicher Trennungen bedarf es vonseiten des Gesetzgebers der bewussten Förderung anteiliger Betreuung durch beide Eltern, der Ausformulierung der klaren normativen Erwartung an Trennungseltern, sich bindungsfürsorglich (Temizyürek, 2014/2018) zu verhalten sowie der Erweiterung der Möglichkeiten, streitende Eltern zur Teilnahme an psychologischer Beratung und Mediation zu verpflichten. Die nachfolgenden Ausführungen beziehen sich nicht auf solche Fälle, in denen die Trennung der Eltern nachweislich auf Umständen beruht, die einen Umgang zum Wohle des Kindes ausschließen (z.B. Erleben und Miterleben häuslicher Gewalt, herabwürdigendes Verhalten gegenüber dem Kind durch den umgangsberechtigten Elternteil etc.).
Parental alienation is a phenomenon in psychology that has garnered tremendous controversy over the past sixty years (Joshi, 2021 Joshi, A. (Ed.). (2021). Litigating parental alienation: evaluating and presenting an effective case in Court. ABA, American Bar Association, Family Law Section. [Google Scholar]). Especially within the realm of high-conflict divorce cases, parental alienation is considered by some mental health professionals as a great concern that can be resolved through reunification therapy or related educational programs. These educational programs, which aim to bring families together and attempt to rectify the concern of parental alienation, are seen in Linda Gottlieb’s Turning Points (New York, New York; Austin, Texas) as well as Deutsch, Ward, Sullivan, and Friend’s Overcoming Barriers (Palo Alto, California; Natick, Massachusetts; New York, New York). In this paper, we highlight research findings of the programs, methods used, limitations, as well as critiques of the programs. Ultimately, there is a lack of reliable research behind each of these programs and a potential concern for traumatizing individuals who engage in such programs.
Parental alienation (PA), typically identified in divorced families, is a form of nonvoluntary family distancing wherein one parent employs maladaptive communication patterns to sever the relationship between the other parent and child(ren). This study examines the reconnection phase of PA from the alienated parent perspective, elucidating tensions salient to PA as well as enacted communication management strategies. Alienated parents who experienced PA and reinitiated contact were recruited to participate in retrospective interviews. Four dialectical tensions and corresponding communication strategies were identified. Data provide a more holistic understanding of PA reconnection experiences. Findings are vital to building supportive resources for PA.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.