Parental Alienation Syndrome ("PAS") is a hot topic in family law. There is a school of support for PAS, and a school adverse to it as a junk science. The essence of the theory is that one parent poisons the child emotionally and psychologically against the other parent.
Dr. Richard A. Warshak is a clinical, consulting, and
research psychologist in private practice in Dallas, Texas with more
than thirty years experience. He grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., graduated
from Midwood High School, and earned his undergraduate degree from
Cornell University. He received his Ph.D. in 1978 from U.T.’s
Southwestern Medical Center where is now a Clinical Professor of
Psychology and a recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award. Dr.
Warshak is past president of the Dallas Society for Psychoanalytic
Psychology and he sits on the Editorial Board of three professional
journals. He maintains a website devoted to PAS and the psychology of children and divorce. Please click here to visit the site.
On Dr. Warshak's site you will also see reference to the PAS research of Richard A. Gardner, M.D. As explained by Dr. Warshak:
You can review Dr. Garnder's materials by clicking here.
Please be sure to visit www.hardinglaw.com, the website for the law firm of Harding & Associates, for more information on California family law.
Saying PAS shouldn't count as a condition because Gardner was a pedophile is like saying The Who's music shouldn't count because Pete Townsend got caught collecting kiddie porn.
What about the OTHER cases? You know, the ones where everyone agrees, truthfully, that there is no abuse of any other kind? Yet, one parent effectively "vanishes" the other from the kids' lives, for no other reason than vengence.
Some of the anti-PAS rants I've read could have been written by my ex. Its the same language they use to alienate the kids from the other parent in the first place. The only people who are blind to it seem to be Alienators - hence the problem. They don't think they have a problem!
This whole anti-PAS movement seems perpetuated by the very people initiating the subversive problems.
For those of us who are not child molesters, the anti-PAS people come across as crazy manhaters. Why? Because the definition of PAS doesn't include ANYthing about child molestation. It just speaks to one parent diminishing the other without cause. Why are you people trying to overcomplicate it? Stop trying to hijack the definition to suit your needs.
Maybe one of you genuises should submit a new term for parental alienation in cases where abuse (other than the alientation) is not present. Its your big opportunity to come up with a name for your own condition.
Posted by: EB | September 20, 2009 at 07:39 PM
PAS was designed by a pedophile. This cannot be ignored. He recommended the victim be given to the perp and the mother was at fault because she was frigid.
Gardner was dysfunctional and while it does occur that parents say bad things about the other in divorce, it is also true sex abuse does occur also and moms try and protect their kids.
Dr. Richard Gardner: A Review of His Theories and Opinions
on Atypical Sexuality, Pedophilia, and Treatment Issues
http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/res/dallam/2.html
Posted by: Ann Bradley | September 09, 2009 at 05:23 PM