Julie Ancis PhD would appreciate if you could briefly share any stories or issues you think are important to address to the group considering PAS inclusion in the DSM. Please email Julie Ancis with your input at julieancis@yahoo.com
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PARENTAL ALIENATION SYNDROME (PAS)
by: Julie R. Ancis, Ph.D.
Parental Alienation Syndrome, which is being proposed for inclusion in the DSM-V, has been generally defined as a child’s denigration of a parent without justification. The creation of “Parental Alienation Syndrome,” otherwise known as PAS, is partly the result of two major trends: 1) a backlash against sexual abuse survivors who disclosed the abuse and 2) an increase in the divorce rate in North America when both parents and child custody assessors became more likely to notice signs of child abuse (Caplan, 2004).
Statistics indicate that 1/4 of girls and 1/6 of boys are survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) (http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/ace/prevalence.htm). According to the World Health Organization (2006), worldwide prevalence of sexual violence involving forced intercourse and touch in children under 18 years of age is 150 million for girls and 73 million for boys and 150 million for girls. The majority of CSA perpetrators are men (Finkelhor, 1994; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2010), and more mothers than fathers tend to report that their ex-spouses might be abusing their children (Bala & Schuman, 1999).
Richard Gardner (1985/87) argued that the majority of children in child custody litigation suffered from the so-called disorder of Parental Alienation Syndrome. His focus was almost exclusively on mothers as turning a child against the father, allegedly in order to get or retain custody of the child. He included denigration of the father via ‘‘programming (‘brainwashing’),” as well as the child’s own contributions to vilifying the target parent. Gardner claimed that many reports of CSA in the context of divorce cases were false allegations. In this connection, it is important to note that Bala and Schuman (1999) found that only 1.3% of mothers’ allegations of abuse by their children’s fathers were deemed by civil court judges to be intentionally false, in contrast to 21% of cases in which fathers had made such allegations against mothers. And Meier (2009) reports after reviewing the research that it is a mistaken belief that mothers’ allegations in child custody proceedings that fathers have sexually abused their children are usually false.
The use of the term PAS and variants such as “parental alienation” has been extended in recent years, so that it is applied even to cases in which a child refuses to visit the noncustodial parent, whether or not the child’s objections entail abuse allegations.
According to Gardner, “evidence” of PAS includes a parent who refuses to force the children to visit their father (even when an abuse allegation is still being investigated), or a mother’s and/or child’s hesitancy to be interviewed in the presence of the father, the latter being alleged to result from manipulation by the mother. Children’s inability or unwillingness to provide details of abuse is also used as evidence of PAS, even though that inability or unwillingness could actually be related to trauma reactions or fear of retaliation by the abuser, possibilities not acknowledged by Gardner.
Gardner’s (1998) questionable ethics and clinical judgment are reflected in (but are by no means limited to) the following: (1) he recommends joint interviews with an accused father and child in which the father directly confronts the child about the allegation, and (2) he interprets a child’s overt expression of fear of possible retaliation by the father as evidence of the child’s embarrassment about lying rather than as possibly a valid fear of a truth telling child whose father is abusive
The construct of PAS is unscientific, composed of a group of general symptoms with no empirical basis. (It has been said that it is nothing more than a scientific-sounding way of saying that a mother is vengeful and mendacious [Caplan, 2004]). In spite of this, PAS is often used to discount allegations of abuse, particularly in custody disputes, so that the accuser’s sanity and parenting ability are questioned, and the rights of the “alienated” parent become the focus of the case, rather than the needs of the child.
Major professional bodies, including the American Psychological Association, have discredited PAS on the grounds that it is misused in domestic violence cases and that there is no scientific evidence of such a “syndrome.” The more recent APA Online document Issues and Dilemmas in Family Violencehttp://www.apa.org/pi/essues.html), particularly Issue 5, describes the tendency of family courts to miminize a context of violence, falsely accusing the mother of alienation and granting custody to the father in spite of his history of violence.
The National Council on Juvenile and Family Court Judge’s 2006 manual states that “parental alienation syndrome or PAS has been discredited by the scientific community” and “should therefore be ruled inadmissible” (p. 19). A number of prominent figures, including Dr. Paul J. Fink, past president of the American Psychiatric Association and president of the Leadership Council on Mental Health, Justice, and the Media, and Professor Jon R. Conte of the University of Washington Social Welfare Doctoral Faculty have also discredited PAS and its lack of scientific basis (see Bruch, 2001).
Because of the use of PAS as a tactic by many CSA perpetrators to influence decision makers and the court system, abused children have been placed in the hands of their abusers (Childress, 2006). It is estimated that “over 58,000 children a year are ordered into unsupervised contact with physically or sexually abusive parents following divorce in the United States” (http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/pas/1.htm) and that PAS was used in a large number of these cases.
Recent arguments to include PAS in the DSM-V as a differential diagnosis of oppositional defiant disorder, or as an example of a relational disorder (e.g. Bernet, 2008), are lacking in empirical basis, provide false claims related to reliability and validity, and are potentially harmful to children and families.
References
American Psychological Association (APA). (1996). Report on Violence and the Family: Issues and Dilemmas in Family Violence. APA Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.nnflp.org/apa/intro.html.
Bala, N., & Schuman, J. (1999). Allegations of sexual abuse when parents have separated. Canadian Family Law Quarterly 17, 191–241.
Bernet, W. (2008). Parental alienation disorder and DSM-V. American Journal of Family Therapy, 36, 349-366. doi:10.1080/01926180802405513
Bruch, C. (2001). Parental Alienation Syndrome and Parental Alienation: Getting it wrong in child custody cases. Family Law Quarterly, 35(3), 527-552. Retreived fromhttp://ezproxy.gsu.edu:3305/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/famlq35&id=1&size=2&collection=journals&index=journals/famlq
Caplan, P. (2004). What is it that’s being called “Parental Alienation Syndrome”? In Caplan, P. J., & Cosgrove, L. (Eds.) Bias in psychiatric diagnosis (pp. 61-67). Lanham, MD: Roman & Littlefield.
Childress, S. (2006, September 25). Fighting over the kids: Battered spouses take aim at a controversial custody strategy. Newsweek. http://www.newsweek.com/id/35157
Finkelhor, D. (1994). Current information on the scope and nature of child sexual abuse. The Future of Children, 4(2), 31-53. Retrieved fromhttp://www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/VS75.pdf.
Gardner, R. A. (1985). Recent trends in divorce and custody litigation.Academy Forum, 29 (2), 3–7.
Gardner, R. A. (1987). The Parental Alienation Syndrome and theDifferentiation Between False and Genuine Sex Abuse. Creskill, NJ: Creative Therapeutics.
Gardner, R. A. (1998). The Parental Alienation Syndrome (2nd ed.). Creskill, NewJersey: Creative Therapeutics, Inc.
Meier, J. S. (2009, January). Parental Alienation Syndrome and parentalalienation: Research reviews. National Online Resource Center on Violence Against Women, 1-17. Retrieved from http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/pas/1.html
National Council of Family Court Judges (2006). Navigating Custody andVisitation Evaluations in Cases with Domestic Violence: A Judge’s Guide. Retrieved fromhttp://www.ncjfcj.org/content/blogcategory/256/302/
United States Department of Veterans Affairs (2010). Child Sexual Abuse. National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Retrieved fromhttp://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/pages/child-sexual-abuse.asp.
Wallerstein, J. S., & Kelly, J. B. (1976). The effects of parental divorce: Experiences of the child in early latency. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 46(1), 20-32. Retrieved fromhttp://ezproxy.gsu.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=fyh&AN=MRB-FSD0228448&site=ehost-live
World Health Organization (2006). World health organization says violence against children can and must be prevented. News release WHO/57. Retrieved fromwww.whqlibdoc.who.int/press_release/2006/PR_57.pdf
Other Resources
Berliner, L & Conte J. R. (1993). Sex abuse evaluations: Conceptual and empirical obstacles. Child Abuse and Neglect, 17, 111-125.Retrieved fromhttp://www.thelizlibrary.org
Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2005). Prevalence of individual adverse childhood experiences. Retrieved fromhttp://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/ace/prevalence.htm
Kelly, J. B., & Johnston, J. R. (2001). The Alienated Child: A Reformulation ofParental Alienation Syndrome, 39, Family Court Review, 249-266. Retrieved fromhttp://sfx.galib.uga.edu/sfx_gsu1?genre=article&issn=15312445&title=Family%20Court%20Review&volume=39&issue=3&date=20010701&atitle=The%20alienated%20child%3A%20A%20reformulation%20of%20parental%20alienation%20syndrome.&spage=249&sid=EBSCO%3Apsyh&pid=Kelly%2C%20Joan%20B.%3BJohnston%2C%20Janet%20R
The Leadership Council. Abuse and custody disputes: Scientific and legal issues.Retrieved from http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/pas/1.html
Thoennes, N., & Tjaden, P. G. (1990). The extent, nature, and validity of sexual abuse allegations in custody/visitation disputes. Child Abuse and Neglect, 14(2), 151-163. doi:10.1016/0145-2134(90)90026-P
Meir, J. S. (2009, January). Parental Alienation Syndrome and parentalalienation: Research reviews. National Online Resource Center on Violence Against Women, 1-17. Retrieved from http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/pas/1.html
Wood, C. L. (1994). The Parental Alienation Syndrome: A Dangerous Aura of Reliability, Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, 27, 1367-1415. Retrieved fromhttp://ezproxy.gsu.edu:2650/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T8031369353&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T8031369356&cisb=22_T8031369355&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=138774&docNo=1
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Additionally, when he filed for divorce, he filed a parenting plan giving me 48hrs visitation with my children a month. No overnight visits. That was taken to our judge, without my knowledge and signed. It was based on lies and his fabrications of truth. It was then overturned by the judge who was very upset with his attorney for doing that with no evidence of any of the accusations being true. I do not get accusations that I am abusive to my children. I get accusations that I am a “drunk whore”, and don’t have anything to do with my family. Some of them are absolutely incredible. And most I am easily able to prove incorrect.
Well said!!!
Debunk the use of accusing battered women and abused children of having the fake mental disorder of “Parental Alienation Syndrome.” Accusations of PAS are a mass hysteria or moral panic fueled by profiteering psychologists who made up this label to stigmatize and undermine the credibility of abuse victims. This label of Parental Alienation or just plain “Alienation” is similar to the labelling of women as having Female Hysteria for being noncompliant or for labelling slaves as having Drepetomania for wanting to be free. This abuse of women and children needs to be stopped and those responsible for the harm inflicted on women and children need to be accountable.
Until you have experienced your previously loving children turn on you, you have no room to talk. My soon to be ex filed for divorce in December. We had been letting the kids go back and forth as they pleased – especially with Christmas break and all the snow days they were getting. The day after he filed, he told me (and yes, I still have the text msg stating this) that if I didn’t bring food to them, I wouldn’t see the kids on the weekend. And he’s talking about snacks and KoolAid and things like that. There was an 8ft deep freezer, a 4ft deep freezer and 2 referidgerators full of food. We lived on a farm. Home canned food galore. He got mad in January because the kids were tending to spend more time with me. Our daughter told him that she liked to hang out with me. He told me at that time “It is on. You will never see your kids again.” He has since systematically destroyed my relationship with my children. I have seen my daughter once and my son 3 times. They are afraid of him. The system has let them down. His temper has been seen in court and after court. It was so bad at one point, when he followed me out of the courtroom, the bailiff came outside to check on me since he had seen how mad he was. They make false accusations, and my 16 year old daughter told me she didn’t love me anymore, and never will. He has projected his twisted view of me on them, until they believe it as truth. I live with it for years, and for a long time thought I was the crazy one. He did this to me, and now he is doing it to them.
Mothers afraid to Protect:
PAS is creating havoc in courts in Italy where I reside. Mothers have reached the stage where they are actually told by lawyers and psychologist NOT to report sexual abuse unless they have cast iron evidence, because they could actually lose their children entirely should the evidence be insufficient.
Children put into Homes as part of the ‘Cure’:
In Italy, many kids are being put into homes as part of Gardner’s ‘Threat Therapy’. You threaten the parent accused of Parental Alienation with losing their child, unless they somehow manage to force the child to ‘love’ and frequent the alienated parent. This is just so unethical and dangerous … it has to be stopped. (Seitis)