American Psychological Association (2002). Ethical Principles of psychologists and code of conduct. American Psychologist, 57, 1060-1073
2.01 Boundaries of Competence (a) Psychologists provide services, teach and conduct research with populations and in areas only within the boundaries of their competence, based on their education, training, supervised experience, consultation, study or professional experience.
Dr. C.A. Childress, Psy.D. (2013)
See the entire summary and complete reference list here:
In this video series, Dr. Craig Childress explains to a child involved in an Alienation Scenario what happens when their natural Attachment System is distorted.
Attachment System here refers to the normal relationships that are developed in a family setting where adults and children bond, primarily for the protection of the children.
The doctor explains that it is unnatural for a child to reject a parent or to break or refuse to make a bond with either parent. Thus rejecting a bond with a parent brings about a sense of loss and appropriately, a Grief Response in the child. This Grief Response is symptomatic of a severed relationship, as in death. Grief Response usually follows the death of the other person, except in the special case of an Alienation Scenario.
Dr. Childress discusses Anger as a natural component of a Grief Response to a severed relationship. He explains that this Anger further suppresses the natural tendencies of the Attachment System (because the severed or murdered parent is not quite dead yet). Left unaddressed, this unnatural state will negatively impact the child’s new relationships.
Unfortunately this condition calls on children to understand their predicament with regard to their family and to understand the dynamics related to their close and alienated family relationships. Their own psychological health depends on it.
I would ask all of my children and others that have had similar experiences to watch this series of videos:
“Most victims (of Parental Alienation-The Targeted or Alienated Parent) commit a mistake. They attempt to present to their children a balanced picture of the relationship and of the abusive spouse. In a vain attempt to avoid the notoriety and controversy of Parental Alienation Syndrome, the victims do not besmirch the abusive parent. On the contrary, they encourage the semblance of a normal functional liaison.
THIS IS ABSOLUTELY THE WRONG APPROACH!!
It is not only counterproductive, it sometimes proves outright DANGEROUS!!
….Both parents are under a moral obligation to tell their offspring the truth. The relationship is over for good, and there is a guilty party. Younger kids tend to believe that they are somehow responsible or guilty for the breakdown of the marriage. They must be disabused of this notion.”
Sam Vaknin, Author of Malignant Self Love; Narcissism Revisited
“The children lack life experience and other defenses against manipulation. They may be dependent on the abuser economically and they always resent the abused ‘you’ for breaking up the family, for being unable to fully cater to their needs.”
Sam Vaknin, Author of Malignant Self Love; Narcissism Revisited
“Victims of narcissistic abuse similarly equate money with love, craving the latter, they very often settle for the former. With so many strings attached to the narcissists gifts, these people (beneficiaries, victims) end up entangled and dangling like dysfunctional marionettes, like puppets in the narcissists theatre of the absurd.”
“If the victims do not extricate themselves in time they gradually acquire many of the traits and patterns of their narcissistic tormentors and share with them a shared psychosis; a mini cult of domination and subjugation that is mediated by the ubiquitous dollar sign.”
Sam Vaknin, Author of Malignant Self Love; Narcissism Revisited.
The problem with missed diagnoses in Parental Alienation is that “the child remains psychologically enmeshed with a parent who has a significant, a very significant psychiatric psychopathology and that is going to wind up significantly hurting and damaging the child and it significantly hurts and damages the targeted parent who is the healthier parent in this whole process.” Dr. CA Childress
“Parental Alienation is not a Custody Issue; it is a Child Protection Issue.”
“There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance — that principle is contempt prior to investigation.”
HERBERT SPENCER
Reconceptualizing Parental Alienation
This is a professional-level article I have written that describes the psychological and interpersonal processes of “parental alienation” from an attachment system framework. Gardner’s model of “parental alienation” represents a failed paradigm – primarily because its existence has not solved the challenges faced by targeted-rejected parents, the alienation continues and they can’t make it stop. In my view, it is time to move beyond Gardner’s model to one which addresses the valid criticisms of the established mental health community. I have spent the last several years working out the clinical features of “parental alienation” from entirely within standard and established psychological constructs. This article is the result of my efforts. From a clinical psychology perspective, this is what “parental alienation” is.
Here i raise the question if Parent Alienation Syndrome is a separate disorder or if it is a behavior of a Narcissistic Personality Disorder. We know that the prevalence of narcissistic issues is high in PAS parents. We also know that up to the divorce this behavior is not prevalent in alienating parents. It is as if the divorce trigger a certain behavior in a personality already disturbed. A normal personality would never expose a child to this kind of brainwashing.
It is a fact that the features defined for narcissistic personality disorder contains the features described for PAS, but not vice versa. Moreover, it is clear that nobody suddenly get a personality disorder, as PAS is, just because a divorce happens. This behavior appears more as a result of pre-existing personality and manifests itself in this particular way when the particular condition of divorce occurs.
Parental Alienation is Psychological Child Abuse 