Wikipedia definition of Parental Alienation Syndrome.

Parental alienation syndrome

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Parental Alienation Syndrome is a putative disorder proposed by Richard A. Gardner as "a disturbance in which children are obsessively preoccupied with depreciation and/or criticism of a parent. In other words, denigration that is unjustified and or exaggerated." Although Parental Alienation Syndrome has not gained official recognition as a psychological disorder, case law has recognized it in child custody disputes.

Forerunners

Wallerstein and Kelly described a "Medea complex" with similar dynamics in the 1970s. Professionals who work with divorcing parents sometimes described the process as brainwashing and recognized Gardner's description upon its first publication in 1985.

Characteristics

Parental Alienation Syndrome, can result from Parental alienation, that occurs when a parent criticizes the other parent or stepparent directly to a child or in front of the children. It will most likely occur during divorce, custody hearings, upon remarriage of a parent, or most commonly during primary contact with the children. The effect is to produce a disturbance in the child's relationship with the other parent.

Gardner proposed that children have been taught by an alienating parent to hate the targeted parent, to the point of wanting to eliminate the targeted parent from their lives. He considered this psychological abuse and a form of psychological abuse that has clear-cut unmistakable signs and symptoms.

Alan Kemp (Kemp. p. 36) further described the categories that make up PAS: Rejecting (spurning), terrorizing, corrupting, denying essential stimulation, emotional responsiveness or availability, unreliable and inconsistent parenting, mental health, medical or educational neglect, degrating/devaluating the other parent, isolating, and exploiting the child. By deliberately alienating the victims from other family members and social supports, isolation occurs. The alienator then uses threats or denigrating tactics to force victims to comply with their requests (terrorizing). Essentially, in PAS, the children are used to destroy the targeted parent as a means of revenge.

The alienating parent refuses to comply with court orders, tells the children they do not have to abide by them either, thus prompting them to ignore the authority of the targeted parent. The idea is the alienating parent has a goal of destroying the targeted parent by using the children as weapons or pawns. The alienating parent uses the children to verbally terrorize their other parent, to isolate the other parent, to accuse the other parent and to take away the financial or earning capabilities of the other parent by continual harassments such as false accusations of abuse, further ignoring of court orders to bring about more custody changes and eventual destruction of the targeted parent through emotional/financial collapse.

PAS occurs as a result of cross-generational coalitions, enmeshed relationships, triangles, borderless boundary families and is child psychological maltreatment as recognized by the DSM under Cluster B Personality Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder. The alienating parent without regard to the needs of the children continually violates the rights, needs and court orders from the other parent.