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(Syndrome) d’Aliénation Parentale. Forme sous-estimée de maltraitance psychologique des enfants lors de séparations conflictuelles des parents
Abstract
The Parental Alienation (Syndrome) – An underestimated kind of psychological abuse of children in the context of conflictual separation or divorce of parents
Induced parental alienation is a specific form of psychological child abuse, which is listed in DSM-5, the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), under diagnostic code V 995.51 “child psychological abuse”. Untreated induced parental alienation can lead to long-term traumatic psychological and physical effects in the children concerned. This fact is still not given sufficient attention in family court cases. The article gives a condensed overview of parental alienation, summarising its definition, the symptoms and the various levels of severity. It also describes some major alienation techniques and possible psychosomatic and psychiatric effects of induced parental alienation. Finally, attention is drawn to programmes of prevention and intervention now used and evaluated in some countries. The article concludes with a comprehensive list of international references.
... It is a process of psychological refusal from a child towards his/her parent as a result of the influence of the other parent. Such a phenomenon usually emerges from conflictual conditions and, notably, in cases of child custody disputes, evolving into "emotional abuse" 4,5 . PAS implies, in children, harmful consequences of reality-testing, weakening the ability to feel empathy, and lack of respect for authority, extended also to non-parental figures and development of narcissism in his/her adult age 6 . ...
Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) is a term addressed to describe negative, psychopathological feelings, thinking and behaviours, including hostility and fear, exhibited by children who have been alienated from one parent by the other parent. Despite its relevance in the clinical psychology field, theoretical and empirical contributions to understanding and deepening the many facets of this concept are still few. In particular, literature aimed at disentangling the alienating parent's psychological characteristics is scarce and fragmented. Our contribution encompasses a narrative review of scientific literature since the term PAS was coined in 1987 by Gardner, to delineate narcissistic proneness in alienating parents. Namely, considering the narcissistic drift the western society is going toward, we hypothesised that narcissism has a pivotal role in parents' alienating behaviours against the alienated ones. Firstly, the elements that emerged from our literature search confirmed our theoretical hypothesis, in terms of the likely role of narcissism/narcissistic marked traits in alienating parents. In the second section, we contextualised the phenomenon in a psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theoretical framework. Finally, based on previous findings/considerations, the developmental trajectories of children with PAS have been traced. An improved theoretical knowledge of this phenomenon, also in terms of the psychopathology associated with its genesis, means to refine the diagnostic and treatment tools to prevent it.
... A number of authors have drawn parallels between parental alienation and psychological violence (Boch-Galhau & Kodjoe, 2005;Drapeau et al. 2004;). Gagné and argued that denigrating a parent, alienating the child from the parent, and exposing the child to intense postseparation conflict are all forms of psychological abuse. ...
This qualitative study concerns the life paths and lived experiences of 6 adults who have been alienated from a parent in the past. The results suggest several hypotheses concerning the factors that might place children at risk of being alienated from a parent. The presence of postseparation conflict and, in some cases, domestic violence, as well as the triangulation of the child appear to be elements that favor the emergence of parental alienation. Moreover, this study supports a multifactorial explanation of parental alienation. In the scope of lived experience, respondents associated alienation with difficulties at school, internal and external behavior problems, and a search for identity after reaching adulthood. Finally, overcoming the state of alienation involves issues surrounding the establishment of boundaries with the alienating parent and the rebuilding of a relationship with the alienated parent.
This study undertakes a bibliometric analysis, science mapping, and visualization of the consequences of marital union dissolution on the household members, including parents, children, and other relations. We also analyze the temporal trends of the scientific production and citation of author sand sources, and institutions/ countries' collaborations using data from published documents indexed on SCOPUS within the last four decades. The paper highlights five outcomes. First, there is an upward trend in scientific production on divorce and the consequences, which mirrors the increasing divorce rate in different cultures and societies. Second, the clusters of terms identify various adverse effects of divorce on the household members, including a severe economic impact on women and children. Even the dissolution of bad marriage carries significant emotional and psychological pains on the household members. Third, parental divorce can constitute an adverse childhood experience with potentially long-term consequences in some cases where the offspring cannot recover from the emotional trauma. Fourth, divorce can cause health problems, including social, behavioral, psychological, and mental health problems to the parents and children, and economic challenges. Fifth, the results using network analysis show that the consequences of divorce are not linear but multi-directional. Finally, most research output originates from countries with a high divorce rate. The study reveals upward trends in the literature production, the divorce rate across all marriage groups and social status, and religious groups. The paper contributes to integrating scholarship in divorce consequences.
The dramatic increase in the number of child-custody disputes since the seventies has created an equally dramatic need for a standard reference work that examines the growing social problem of children who develop an irrational hatred for a parent as the result of divorce. The International Handbook of Parental Alienation Syndrome: Conceptual, Clinical, and Legal Considerations features clinical, legal, and research perspectives from 32 contributors representing eight countries, building on the work of the late Dr. Richard Gardner, a pioneer in the theory, practice, diagnosis, and treatment of Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS). This unique book addresses the effects of PAS on parents and children, discusses issues surrounding reconciliation between parent and alienated child, and includes material published for the first time on incidence, gender, and false allegations of abuse in PAS. Content highlights examines PAS and the roles of family members, the criminal justice system, and the need for public awareness and policymakers to respond to PAS. Descriptive statistics on 84 cases are given, and the factors affecting reconciliation between the child and target parent are listed. The mild, moderate, and severe categories of PAS are explored, and the psychological consequences of PAS indoctrination for adult children of divorce and the effects of alienation on parents are researched. The role of medical reports in the development of PAS, sexual abuse allegations, and future predictions on the fate of PAS children are many of the clinical considerations in this book. The legal issues concern PAS in American law, criticisms of PAS in courts of law, protecting the fundamental rights of children in families, family law reform, International PAS abductions, and the legal requirements of experts giving evidence to courts. The impact and implications of PAS are immense, and no other single source provides the depth and breadth of coverage of the topic than the clinical and forensic chapters in this book.
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.
Psychiatric experts find it is easier to deal with more horrible crimes than highly conflictual divorces. In the former, projections are impossible and "files" raise very interesting issues with regard to criminology; in contrast, in the latter the expert is confronted not just with a family but also and lest one forget, a couple that at one point in time had loved each other. However, the separation resembles a bloodbath. We will not detail the various psychiatric pathologies, which may further complicate a separation: they are well-known and, on a procedural level, do not raise any specific concerns. We will however address "pathological divorces" where although individuals, assessed on a case-by-case basis, are exempt from ascertainable or developing psychiatric pathologies, pathology permeates systemic relations, inextricably linked to hatred or disgust. In this light, fault-based divorces still remain rare: it is in this context, marked by defiance and doubt as to the parental competence of each member of the couple that the psychiatric expert intervenes, with a similar acknowledged mission to that of the court: recommendations to be offered regarding visitation and custody rights. Amongst the conflictual and inextricable situations the most often encountered in expert practice, the parental alienation syndrome (PAS) now known as parental alienation (PA) refers to all psychopathological manifestations observed in children subject to highly conflictual parental separations, and above all, the unjustified or inexplicable rejection of a parent by a child (or even by siblings). This recent entity has raised controversy: some even go so far as to deny the existence itself of this phenomenon claiming that it does not appear in the international classifications of psychiatric disorders. Consequently, it was not included in the last edition of the DSM and does not appear in the ICD classification of the OMS whose 11th edition is currently being prepared. The weaknesses in the scientific concept and its purely passionate dimension, including sexist controversies, must be carefully elucidated in the dismissal or denial of this pathology. The author raises various definitions of parental alienation of which the most recent is undoubtedly the least controversial. He discusses the reasons for the dismissal of the concept by the Scientific Committee of the DSM-5. This dismissal is however quite apparent as although the term "parental alienation" is not contained therein, we will show that the notion is clearly referred to in at least two chapters of the new American classification of mental disorders.
“Parental alienation syndrome” (PAS) is unscientific and is an affront to children, women who hold the custody of children of separated couples, science, human rights, and the justice system itself. Justice, to be just, should be based on scientifically proven theories and evidence. This article describes investigations carried out to show that two of the principles that underpin PAS are false: That children lie when pressed (alienated in the terminology of PAS), and that the principle that should guide judges’ actions for the good of the child should be that for the child to always be in contact with both parents. The results of these investigations show that these two principles are false and advocates the use of truly scientific proceedings for judges to grant custody in case of dispute between parents, as well as for determining the visitation for the noncustodial parent.
This study aimed to systematically review the literature pertaining to parental alienation to determine best practice for therapists and legal practitioners. Medline, Embase, and PsycINFO academic databases, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and conference abstracts were searched. Included articles were peer reviewed journal articles or books published in English pertaining to a psychological or legal intervention for parental alienation. Ten articles were included in the review. It was found that changes in custodial or residential arrangements in favour of the targeted parent are effective in ameliorating parental alienation. Specialized family therapy addressing the alienation is effective in restoring family relationships and family functioning. A coordinated approach from therapists and legal practitioners is important in resolving parental alienation.
Practitioner points
Parental alienation requires legal and therapeutic management to enhance family functioning
Awarding primary parental responsibility to the targeted parent and providing specialized family therapy is effective in ameliorating parental alienation
A specialized form of systemic family therapy for parental alienation can improve family functioning and prevent further parental alienation
The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of structural and therapeutic interventions for interrupting parental alienation syndrome (PAS) toward the severe end of the spectrum. Follow-up was obtained on 45 PAS children from a custody evaluator's practice. The child's adjustment and relationship with both parents at evaluation and follow-up were compared. Children who had enforced visitation with the target parent, or were in target parent custody, maintained relationships with both parents unless the alienator was too disturbed. In the completed alienation outcome group, the alienating parent had custody before and after the evaluation, and was able to violate court orders with impunity. Therapy as the primary intervention was ineffective and sometimes made things worse.
Judicial Family Law proceedings are peculiar; a large number of cases are never closed, until the children reach adulthood. We selected three variables to test whether they can explain the credibility of each party and agent in the proceedings: guiding principle that orients the court's decision, confirmation of maternal manipulation in the psycho-social report, and establishing credibility of the child's testimony. An incidental sample of 169 people was used. The three manipulated variables imply very different levels of credibility for each party to the proceedings. Finally, proposed modifications to court proceedings are suggested to ensure adequate protection of children.
False beliefs about the genesis of parental alienation and about appropriate remedies shape opinions and decisions that fail to meet children’s needs. This article examines 10 mistaken assumptions: (a) children never unreasonably reject the parent with whom they spend the most time, (b) children never unreasonably reject mothers, (c) each parent contributes equally to a child’s alienation, (d) alienation is a child’s transient, short-lived response to the parents’ separation, (e) rejecting a parent is a short-term healthy coping mechanism, (f) young children living with an alienating parent need no intervention, (g) alienated adolescents’ stated preferences should dominate custody decisions, (h) children who appear to function well outside the family need no intervention, (i) severely alienated children are best treated with traditional therapy techniques while living primarily with their favored parent, and (j) separating children from an alienating parent is traumatic. Reliance on false beliefs compromises investigations and undermines adequate consideration of alternative explanations for the causes of a child’s alienation. Most critical, fallacies about parental alienation shortchange children and parents by supporting outcomes that fail to provide effective relief to those who experience this problem.
In this chapter I will discuss: The mother-daughter bond, The Medea Complex ( The mother's revenge against her former husband by depriving him of his children), brain washing and the Parental Alienation Syndrome (The children's pathological unconscious wish to please the "loved" parent by rejecting the "hated" parent), the subsequent disturbed intimacies that the brainwashed child suffers later in life, and a case history of three generations of Parental Alienation Syndrome and it's unusual resolution.
In this chapter, I will bring together two separate issues: the Medea complex and the Parental Alienation Syndrome. To my knowledge, I have not seen these two concepts brought together.
This article examines the assertions, made by two main groups of critics, about Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) and parental alienation (PA). Among the topics discussed are: role of the alienating parent; structural interventions such as custodial transfer; relationship between PAS and allegations of sex abuse; and controversy over use of the term syndrome.
A survey study was conducted of adults who self reported being targets of parental alienation. Three research questions were addressed: (1) What alienating strategies were identified by the targeted parents and to what extent were these behaviors consistent with those identified by adult children of PAS? (2) Was gender of the targeted parent associated with number and/or type of strategy identified? And (3) What child and parent characteristics were associated with level of PAS (mild, moderate, severe) as described by the targeted parents? Ninety-seven individuals completed a written survey. One section of the survey asked participants to list every type of behavior that they believed the alienating parent used to effectuate the alienation. From prior research and review of the responses, a list of possible strategies was developed. The 1,300 actions described by the 97 participants were independently coded. Results revealed 66 types of strategies, 11 mentioned by at least 20% of the sample. There was considerable but not complete overlap in the strategies identified by the targeted parents with those described by adult children (from another study). There were no statistical differences in the number or type of strategy mentioned based on the gender of the targeted parent or the gender of the target child. Level of severity of PAS (mild, moderate, severe) as perceived by the targeted parent was associated with age and gender of the target child, with girls and older children being more likely to be reported as more severely alienated. These results provide a systematic examination of the different types of alienation strategies known to targeted parents and as such they offer several avenues for clinical interventions and future research.
A qualitative retrospective study was conducted on 38 adults who experienced parental alienation as a child. Individuals partic-ipated in one-hour semi-structured interviews. Audiotapes were transcribed verbatim, and submitted to a content analysis for pri-mary themes and patterns. Findings pertaining to the long-term effects of parental alienation were analyzed for this article. Results revealed seven major areas of impact: (1) low self-esteem, (2) de-pression, (3) drug/alcohol abuse, (4) lack of trust, (5) alienation from own children, (6) divorce, and (7) other. These seven themes are discussed at length to provide the first glimpse into the lives of adult children of parental alienation. Every year one million marriages end in divorce, resulting in more than 100,000 couples battling over the custody and visitation of their children (Turkat, 2000). Children whose parents divorce suffer emotionally and psy-chologically, especially when the divorce is contentious and the children are exposed to ongoing conflict between their parents (e.g., Amato, 1994; Johnston, 1994, Wallerstein & Blakeslee, 1996). One specific form of post-divorce conflict has been relatively overlooked in the empirical divorce literature: parental alienation, when one parent turns the child against the other parent through powerful emotional manipulation techniques designed to bind the child to them at the exclusion of the other parent (Darnall, 1998; Gardner, 1998; Wallerstein & Blakeslee, 1996; Warshak, 2001). These parents create a "cult of parenthood" and, like cult leaders, they undermine the independent thinking skills of their children and cultivate an unhealthy dependency designed to satisfy the emotional needs of the adult Address correspondence to Amy J. L.
Forty adults who were alienated from a parent as a child participated in a qualitative research study about their experience. A content analysis was conducted on the transcripts and a comparison was undertaken to identify similarities between alienating parents and cult leaders. Results revealed that adults whose parents alienated them from their other parent described the alienating parent much the way former cult members describe cult leaders. The alienating parents were described as narcissistic and requiring excessive devotion and loyalty, especially at the expense of the targeted parent. The alienating parents also were found to utilize many of the same emotional manipulation and persuasion techniques cult leaders use to heighten dependency on them. And, finally, the alienating parents seemed to benefit from the alienation much the way cult leaders benefit from the cult: they have excessive control, power, and adulation. Likewise, the participants reported many of the same negative outcomes that former cult members experience such as low self-esteem, guilt, depression, and lack of trust in themselves and others. These findings can provide a useful framework for conceptualizing the experience of parental alienation and should also be useful for therapists who provide counseling and treatment to adults who experienced alienation as a child. Each year approximately one million couples divorce. Many of these divorces involve children. Research has consistently shown that children whose parents divorce suffer emotionally and psychologically, especially when the divorce is contentious and the children are exposed to ongoing conflict between their parents (e.g, building on an earlier meta-analysis of 92 studies, concluded that children who experienced divorce, compared to samples of children in continuously intact two-parent families, had higher rates of negative outcomes including conduct problems, psychological maladjustment, and poorer self-concepts. Using a qualitative approach, Wallerstein and Lewis (2004) also found long-term negative consequences of children's experience of parental divorce.
This article describes the parental alienation syndrome, its proposed characteristics and dynamics, and the methods used to document its presence. Research related to various tenets of the parental alienation syndrome is then reviewed. Finally, the syndrome's utility for mental health professionals and courts in explaining allegations of sexual abuse in situations of divorce is evaluated. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67847/2/10.1177_1077559598003002005.pdf
Parental alienation is a form of child psychological abuse and traditional therapeutic approaches do not work with these types of cases. This article provides explanation for the gross failure of traditional therapeutic approaches. The rest of the article discusses the Family Reflections Reunification Program (FRRP), specifically designed to treat severely alienated children and their family system. This program was piloted in 2012 with 22 children in 12 families. Evaluations at the end of the retreat and at 3-month, 6-month, 9-month, and 12-month follow-ups demonstrate a 95% success rate in re-establishing and maintaining a relationship between children and once-rejected parents.
In Richard Gardner’s proposed Parental alienation syndrome, children reject contact with the noncustodial parent due to manipulation from the custodial parent. We investigated whether children are, in fact, easily manipulated, and how. Half of a sample of children ages 6 to 12 witnessed an incident of verbal aggression, while the other half did not. All were asked to report what happened. Half were then subjected to high pressure, stating that the aggressor would be their future teacher. Subjects were furthermore told that the perpetrator was either a good person or a bad person. After these two manipulations they reported again what they had witnessed. The results indicate that children rarely lie, and that although 40% of those who witnessed nothing created a false memory of an aggressive incident, this outcome was not influenced by the degree of pressure or positive or negative manipulation. We found no significant differences based on gender or age. We conclude that Gardner’s ideas about parental alienation syndrome, and in particular the ease of parental manipulation of children, were not empirically verified. We recommend that this concept not be used in the legal system.
The subjects of this study were 40 consecutive children in a child therapy and evaluation agency, half of whom were seen for reunification therapy and half for other reasons related to parent–child difficulties in the context of high-conflict divorce. Children completed a 28-item paper-and-pencil questionnaire regarding their thoughts and feelings about their parents to assess the degree to which their statements reflected unjustified alienation from one parent and alignment with the other. Responses to the questionnaires were coded by the first author as reflective of alienation or not. Case files were independently reviewed by agency staff for presence of indicated abuse, and clinicians independently rated the children's resistance to treatment services. Findings revealed that presence of alienation was found in all but one reunification therapy case and in only four of the nonreunification cases. In addition, the children who were coded as exhibiting alienation were rated by their clinicians as significantly more resistant to treatment. Only one alienated child had an indicated abuse or neglect finding in the file, as opposed to five in the not-alienated group. These data highlight the unique configuration of behaviors and attitudes of alienated children and contribute to the knowledge base about how to evaluate and identify them.
Summary This contribution examines behavioral patterns of alienating parents and the dynamics of their personality affecting child- rens' developmental chances. Knowledge of such factors allows psychotherapists, social workers, judicial personnel, judges, case workers, lawyers, teachers, kindergarten teachers, doctors, friends and neighbors early identification of alienating behavior following a separation/divorce. In cases that would require con- sistent limit-setting, alienating parents (because of their specific family- and personality dynamics) often engage professional helpers astonishingly effortlessly in the pursuit of their own goals and view of the parental strife. From a distance, and from the perspective of an uninvolved observer, the seemingly uncritical or helpless collaboration with the alienating parents' "tricks" and strategies is often incomprehensible. It can only be understood in context of a deeper understanding of the alienating parents' personality- and family dynamics, and overcome through a philosophy of intervention that follows from this understanding. The main focus are behaviors that ultimately lead to a phenomenon that was introduced by Gardner (1998) as "Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS)". Hereby, some children, following the initial custody battle (often following a non-agreed-upon "taking of the child", visitation boycott and devaluation of the other parent), begin to refuse contact with the non-custodial parent and his/her familiar environment, for no apparent reason. They invent their Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag untersucht Persönlichkeitsdynamik und Verhal- tensmuster von Elternteilen, welche nach Scheidung/Trennung versuchen, den Kontakt eines Kindes zum anderen Elternteil z.B. durch Umgangsbehinderungen zu erschweren. Das für nicht beteiligte Beobachter und aus der Distanz oftmals unbe- greifliche Mitagieren von Psychotherapeuten, Sozialarbeitern, Gerichtssachverständigen, Richtern, Verfahrenspflegern, An- wälten, Lehrern und KindergärtnerInnen mit den ‚Tricks' und Strategien entfremdender Eltern, kann nur vor dem Hinter- grund eines tieferen Verständnisses für deren Persönlichkeits- und Familiendynamik und durch eine daraus abgeleitete Inter- ventionsphilosophie überwunden werden. Es werden daher Kriterien entwickelt, um entfremdendes Verhalten nach Tren- nung/Scheidung frühzeitig erkennen und zum Wohle der be- troffenen Kinder gegensteuern und ggf. die notwendigen Sor- gerechts- und Umgangsregelungen einleiten zu können. Es werden jene Entfremdungstechniken beschrieben, die im Er- gebnis beim betroffenen Kind zu einem ‚elterlichen Entfrem- dungssyndrom' (nach Gardner 1998) führen und die Bedeu- tung deklaratorisch-grenzsetzender Interventionsstrategien hervorgehoben.
MMPI-2 validity scales of two groups of parents going through child custody evaluations, parents who engage in parental alienation syndrome (PAS) behaviors and parents who do not, were compared. It was hypothesized that PAS parents would have significantly higher L and K scales and a significantly lower F scale than parents who do not engage in these behaviors. Using female subjects, since few males were available, the hypothesis was confirmed for K and F scales, indicating that PAS parents are more likely to complete MMPI-2 questions in a defensive manner, striving to appear as flawless as possible. It was concluded that parents who engage in alienating behaviors are more likely than other parents to use the psychological defenses of denial and projection, which are associated with this validity scale pattern. Implications of this finding regarding possible personality disorders in PAS parents are discussed.
The question whether courts should order children with parental alienation syndrome (PAS) to visit/reside with the alienated parent has been a significant source of controversy among legal and mental health professionals. This article describes 99 PAS cases in which the author has been directly involved, cases in which he has concluded that the court should order visitation with or transfer primary residential custody to the alienated parent. The outcome when such orders were implemented (N=22) will be compared with the outcome when this recommendation was not followed (N=77).
This treatise is based on years of experience counseling families in divorce and evaluating children during custody litigation. It should provide guidance to the bar, bench, and mental health professionals in ascertaining whether a child has been intentionally brainwashed or alienated from one parent by the other parent, and if so, it offers methods of dealing with these children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The dual purpose of this study was to first test the acceptance of the concept of parental alienation among therapists, and secondly, to assess the validity of parental alienation as a syndrome among therapists who are familiar with this phenomenon. The study measured the independent variable, symptoms of parental alienation syndrome, and the dependent variable, therapists' perception of the syndrome. The respondents analyzed five cases using Dr. Richard Gardner's differential diagnosis chart built into a questionnaire for the potential alienator and the child. For the measurements of reliability and inter-rater reliability, the researcher used Microsoft Excel and Kendall's coefficient of concordance. The findings showed a significant level of concordance among raters in all five cases except in Case 2, where there was a lower consensus on the presence of parental alienation syndrome or meeting Dr. Gardner's criteria due to the complexity of the case presentation. Similarly, findings also reflect the relatively recent discovery of this phenomenon, evidenced by some level of apathy from the general population of therapists to get involved. The completed surveys were from therapists familiar with parental alienation syndrome, which indicated their level of understanding of the phenomena and how their views differed from other therapists who were unfamiliar with PAS. The data gathered from the completed surveys was sufficiently reliable to suggest a wider study for the purpose of classification in the next edition of the DSM.
As courts and legislatures continue their enthusiastic ventures into family law reform, they make frequent use of theories and research from the social sciences. This essay focuses on developments in child custody law stemming from "Parental Alienation Syndrome" (PAS), a theory propounded in 1985 by Richard Gardner, M.D. that became widely used despite its lack of scientific foundations. The discussion highlights theoretical and practical problems with PAS, provides a similar review of more recent proposals labeled "Parental Alienation" (PA), and concludes with recommendations for lawyers and judges who must evaluate these and similar developments.
When judging innovative programs like Family Bridges™, it is important to balance careful scrutiny with openness to new ideas. Judicial responses to children who reject a parent are best governed by a multifactor individualized approach. A presumption that allows children and one parent to regulate the other parent's access to the children is unsupported by research. A custody decision based solely on the severity of alienation leaves children vulnerable to intensification of efforts to poison their affections toward a parent. Concern with possible short-term distress for some children who are required to repair a damaged relationship should not blind us to the long-term trauma of doing nothing. Professionals are urged to minimize the infusion of polemics, rigid ideology, and rumors when offering opinions with inadequate information, particularly public statements that risk harming children.
This article describes an innovative educational and experiential program, Family Bridges: A Workshop for Troubled and Alienated Parent-Child RelationshipsTM, that draws on social science research to help severely and unreasonably alienated children and adolescents adjust to court orders that place them with a parent they claim to hate or fear. The article examines the benefits and drawbacks of available options for helping alienated children and controversies and ethical issues regarding coercion of children by parents and courts. The program's goals, principles, structure, procedures, syllabus, limitations, and preliminary outcomes are presented. At the workshop's conclusion, 22 of 23 children, all of whom had failed experiences with counseling prior to enrollment, restored a positive relationship with the rejected parent. At follow-up, 18 of the 22 children maintained their gains; those who relapsed had premature contact with the alienating parent.
Gewaltbereites Verhalten entwickelt sich in sozialen Rückkopplungsprozessen und ist durch eskalierende innerseelische, interpersonelle
und soziale Konflikte gekennzeichnet. Anhand einer Kasuistik eines 12jährigen mißhandelten und mißbrauchten Jungen werden
die ätiopathogenetisch wirksam werdenden Faktoren diskutiert, die wiederum ihn zur Gewaltbereitschaft und zum Mißbrauch gegenüber
anderen disponieren: die Empathiestörung in den relevanten Beziehungen des Kindes, die Tradierung einer archaischen Über-Ich-Störung,
die unsichere Bindungsqualität zu den Bezugspersonen, die intrapsychische und intrafamiliäre Grenzenstörung, die Störung des
Selbstwertgefühls und der Identität.
Violent behaviour is characterized by escalating psychic, interpersonal and social processes that are interrelated by feedback
mechanisms. In this paper, the case of a severely traumatized, abused and maltreated 12-yearold boy is presented and relevant
pathogenetic identification processes are discussed that predispose to violent and abusive behaviour of the child her/himself
towards others. The following factors are described: a lack of empathy within the child's relevant relationships, an archaic
distortion of the super-ego, an insecure quality of attachment, intrapsychic and interpersonal boundary disturbances, low
level of self-esteem and disturbances in identity formation.
Three hundred and twenty-eight patients aged 45 years and over with major depression, dysthymic disorder or adjustment disorder with depressed mood (according to DSM-III) were asked about childhood loss experiences (death of one or both parents or at least 1 year's separation) and their current state of health. No statistically significant relationships were found between experiences of loss in childhood and type of depression, sex and age at first episode. However, there was an increased incidence of suicide attempts in patients with experiences of loss in childhood, both by separation and by death of parents. The increased suicidal tendency could mainly be attributed to loss of the father.
Children of separating or divorcing parents seldom escape suffering psychological stress, particularly when the parents are in open conflict. How much should such children be allowed to suffer? The author discusses the problem of defining the terms "emotional child abuse" and "psychological maltreatment" as they are used in the literature. Reviewing the common behavioral patterns that children in this situation resort to and the roles that they tend to take upon themselves, he attempts to distinguish between those instances of stress that can be regarded as acceptable and those that must be considered harmful. With respect to children in this situation, the following behavior patterns are discussed: (a) the inclination of the child to sacrifice itself for the sake of the parents, in particular for the "weaker" one; (b) the tendency of the children to reach agreements among themselves about how they should be divided up; (c) the phenomenon of parentization in which the child assumes the role of the substitute partner for one or the other parent; and (d) the child's discovery of both its power and its helplessness with respect to the situation and the feelings of guilt awakened by this discovery.
The associations between giving a history of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse in children and a range of mental health, interpersonal, and sexual problems in adult life were examined in a community sample of women. Abuse was defined to establish groups giving histories of unequivocal victimization. A history of any form of abuse was associated with increased rates of psychopathology, sexual difficulties, decreased self-esteem, and interpersonal problems. The similarities between the three forms of abuse in terms of their association with negative adult outcomes was more apparent than any differences, though there was a trend for sexual abuse to be particularly associated to sexual problems, emotional abuse to low self-esteem, and physical abuse to marital breakdown. Abuse of all types was more frequent in those from disturbed and disrupted family backgrounds. The background factors associated with reports of abuse were themselves often associated to the same range of negative adult outcomes as for abuse. Logistic regressions indicated that some, though not all, of the apparent associations between abuse and adult problems was accounted for by this matrix of childhood disadvantage from which abuse so often emerged.
The purpose of this study was to assess a full range of pathological childhood experiences reported by patients with criteria-defined borderline personality disorder and comparison patients with other personality disorders.
The pathological childhood experiences reported by 467 inpatients with personality disorders were assessed by interviewers who used a semistructured research interview and were blind to clinical diagnosis.
Of the 358 patients with borderline personality disorder, 91% reported having been abused, and 92% reported having been neglected, before the age of 18. The borderline patients were significantly more likely than the 109 patients with other personality disorders to report having been emotionally and physically abused by a caretaker and sexually abused by a noncaretaker. They were also significantly more likely to report having a caretaker withdraw from them emotionally, treat them inconsistently, deny their thoughts and feelings, place them in the role of a parent, and fail to provide them with needed protection. The borderline patients with a childhood history of sexual abuse were significantly more likely than those without such a history to report having experienced all but one of the types of abuse and neglect studied. When all significant risk factors were considered together, four were found to be significant predictors of a borderline diagnosis: female gender, sexual abuse by a male noncaretaker, emotional denial by a male caretaker, and inconsistent treatment by a female caretaker.
The results suggest that sexual abuse is neither necessary nor sufficient for the development of borderline personality disorder and that other childhood experiences, particularly neglect by caretakers of both genders, represent significant risk factors.
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