Does Parental Alienation Syndrome Exist?
Posted by: Annika Harris
Filed in:
news
1:00PM, Thursday January 1st 2009
Remember when Alec Baldwin railed against his then-11-year-old daughter, Ireland, in that now infamous voicemail message? Well, he claims he was suffering from Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) and has written a memoir, A Promise to Ourselves, about his devastating divorce and child custody battle with Kim Basinger. But what exactly is PAS and why is it so controversial?
PAS is a theory developed by Dr. Richard Gardner in the late 1980s, which arises usually during child custody battles. The custodial parent engages in brainwashing the child against the non-custodial parent, and the child’s own behaviors contribute to the vilification of the other parent. In a situation like this, for example, the custodial parent might badmouth the other parent in front of the children. Or the parent might withhold visitation.
As if child custody wasn’t already a controversial topic, PAS adds to the controversy because it isn’t recognized by any professional body, according to the National Organization of Women and the Leadership Council. NOW argues that PAS is simply a legal defense created to protect fathers from the consequences of their abusive behaviors. According to an article by a retired judge and former faculty member for the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and a former president of the American Psychiatric Association, “Parental Alienation Syndrome has been used nationwide by batterers as a courtroom tactic to silence abused children by attempting to discredit their disclosures of abuse.”
Do you think PAS actually exists? Is it possible for a parent to poison a child against another parent? Or is the custodial parent, who is usually the mother, trying to protect her child from abuse? Tell us in the comments.
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cjmar
wrote on January 1 2009 @ 03:14 pm: [report]
Children are very impressionable and I do believe one parent can poison the child against the other other parent, regardless whether the other parent is abusive, violent, or bad in any way. But this is still NO excuse for someone to act abusively.
mstightgenes
wrote on January 1 2009 @ 06:52 pm: [report]
Parental Alienation is an epidemic and contributes to the downfall of our society. PAS is abuse and the children are the victims that never heal from it,(even as adults). I hope there’ll come a day when there will be a penalty for alienating children from parents.
Tigerlilly
wrote on January 1 2009 @ 07:48 pm: [report]
One of my best friends has been going thru a severe case of parental alienation for the past year. PAS experts have confirmed that this case is one of the worst cases they have seen, and yet the father is still allowed unsupervised visits and continues to poison this poor child. The father not only talks inappropriately to his son about his ex-wife, but has even enlisted the help of his son to stalk/follow his ex-wife, instructs his son to try and get court paperwork/documents from his mother for him, review her phone logs & text messages (and reports back to the father with the information). The damage to her son is irreversible and I am appalled at the multiple therapists, lawyers, judges, and PAS experts that continue to allow children to be continually abused in this way.
LaGiulia
wrote on January 2 2009 @ 02:41 am: [report]
Do we have to have an acronym and a pseudo-medical definition for something that is actually just people being #&@$%?
Arty
wrote on January 2 2009 @ 10:43 am: [report]
@LaGiulia
Actually, having an official name and definition really helps kids (and parents) get the mental health and judicial services they need.
Similarly, if a kid is just “hyper” health insurance isn’t as likely to pay for him or her to see a psychologist as opposed to if the child has an ADHD diagnosis.
It’s an unfortunate reality and one of the reasons why kids get diagnosed with stuff so often these days—but that’s a whole other topic!
LaGiulia
wrote on January 2 2009 @ 02:38 pm: [report]
missinformation: I beg to differ. PAS, in this particular case, does not describe symptoms or disorders in children, just the behaviour causing them. Children may suffer from depression, irritability, or other ailments as a result of parental pressure and manipulation, but I hardly believe it needs a new acronym and an umbrella definition.
Parents behaving like that are bad people and terrible parents, end of. I’m afraid that the over-classification may only be helpful to lawyers in custody case litigations, but may not be of any use to the children themselves, who might end up over-medicated and misunderstood.
nemesis1
wrote on January 3 2009 @ 05:33 am: [report]
The majority of people who partake in PAS are women.
Chelle
wrote on January 4 2009 @ 11:20 am: [report]
My son’s stepmother does this (and she’s got his dad on puppet strings). I never knew it was recognized as an actual syndrome. I just thought she was a crazy b**** who hates me. Thank you so much for posting this article. This may help me get through to his father by making him see what kind of effect this can have. And, yes, I do believe this exists. It’s a terrible thing for anyone to go through.