Parental Alienation Syndrome Is Not A Mental Disorder

Note: Cross posted from [wp angelfury] Battered Mothers Rights - A Human Rights Issue.

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Parental Alienation Syndrome Is Not A Mental Disorder

Filed under: American Psychological Association, Best interest of the child, Call to action, Child Abuse, Child Custody, Child Custody Battle, Child Custody Issues, Children and Domestic Violence, Children who witness abuse, Children's rights, Civil rights, Corrupt Judges, Corrupt Lawyers, Corrupt bastards, Custody Evaluators, Domestic Abuse, Domestic Violence,Domestic Violence by Proxy, Dr. Richard Gardner, Family Court Reform, Family Courts, Family Rights, Getting Screwed by the Whores of the Court, Getting screwed by the Family Courts,Hate Crimes, Judges who break the law, Judicial Immunity, Legal abuse, Non-custodial Mothers, Noncustodial Mothers, Parental Alienation Syndrome, custody evaluations, parental alienation — justice4mothers @ 6:47 pm

Psychologists who make their living at pushing this so-called syndrome are trying to get it approved in the next Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM V).  This must be stopped.  Too many children are ending up with abusers in family court once the words “parental alienation” are uttered.

The American Psychological Association (APA) agrees it is not a mental disorder.  Here is their official opinion:

Statement on Parental Alienation Syndrome

The American Psychological Association has no official position on “parental alienation syndrome.” This concept has been used in contested child custody cases and has become the subject of significant debate. While it may be that in some divorces, children become estranged from their non-custodial parent for a variety of reasons, there is no evidence within the psychological literature of a diagnosable parental alienation syndrome.

The American Judge’s Association, the American Medical Association, the National District Attorney’s Assocation have all discredited it also, and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges have gone as far as to warn judge’s not to accept claims of “parental alienation” or “parental alienation syndrome” in court:

2009: A Judicial Guide to Child Safety in Custody Cases

National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Family Violence Department

Page 12:

C. [§3.3] A Word of Caution about Parental Alienation34

Under relevant evidentiary standards, the court should not accept testimony regarding parental alienation syndrome, or “PAS.” The theory positing the existence of PAS has been discredited by the scientific community.35 In Kumho Tire v. Carmichael, 526 U.S. 137 (1999), the Supreme Court ruled that even expert testimony based in the “soft sciences” must meet the standard set in the Daubert case.36 Daubert, in which the court re-examined the standard it had earlier articulated in the Frye37 case, requires application of a multi-factor test, including peer review, publication, testability, rate of error, and general acceptance. PAS does not pass this test. Any testimony that a party to a custody case suffers from the syndrome or “parental alienation” should therefore be ruled inadmissible and stricken from the evaluation report under both the standard established in Daubert and the earlier Frye standard.38

The discredited “diagnosis” of PAS (or an allegation of “parental alienation”), quite apart from its scientific invalidity, inappropriately asks the court to assume that the child’s behaviors and attitudes toward the parent who claims to be “alienated” have no grounding in reality. It also diverts attention away from the behaviors of the abusive parent, who may have directly influenced the child’s responses by acting in violent, disrespectful, intimidating, humiliating, or discrediting ways toward the child or the other parent. The task for the court is to distinguish between situations in which the child is critical of one parent because they have been inappropriately manipulated by the other (taking care not to rely solely on subtle indications) , and situations in which the child has his or her own legitimate grounds for criticism or fear of a parent, which will likely be the case when that parent has perpetrated domestic violence. Those grounds do not become less legitimate because the abused parent shares them, and seeks to advocate for the child by voicing his or her concerns.

An APA report found that abusers were twice as likely to seek sole custody of the children and 70% of the time they got it.  This is because all an abuser has to do is utter the words “parental alienation” and he’ll score custody.  Wonder about the “mental health” professionals trying to get it approved in the next Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM V)?  They are psychologists for hire, ready to testify for their clients or recommend that the children be put in their $40,000 a week treatment center.  There is a lot of money to be made by these people if “parental alienation syndrome” makes it into the DSM-V.

And what about the children that are the true victims?  Can you imagine the horror or being told you have to live with your abuser or your parent’s abuser?  Even after you had witnessed it?  How does that child feel…do they have nightmares night after night dreaming of trying to save that parent?  And on top of it, the abusive parent and/or their Whores of the Court are keeping you from seeing your loving parent.  How about the child that was raped by a parent?  All the rapist parent has to do is go into court and utter the words “parental alienation” and 70% of the time they score custody.  Then the child is usually drugged into compliance to let the abuser continue to rape the child, and nobody will listen because the label “parental alienation syndrome” has been placed upon them.

Help lend your voice to the effort to keep this horrific label meant to keep the court psychologists and social workers employed.  Comments are being taken until the middle of 2010.

Please contact Daniel Pine, M.D., pined@mail.nih.gov to let him know that PAS is a legal defense for pedophiles which has been thoroughly debunked by the National District Attorney’s Association, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the American Judge’s Association, and has not been accepted by the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association.  Dr. Pine is Chairman of the Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence Work Group, for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V), National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Building 15K, Room 110, Bethesda, MD 20892-1381, Phone: (301) 594-1318, Fax: (301) 480-8648.

(A sample letter will be posted soon, watch for it here).

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

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