Mental Health Experts Pushing to Add Parental Alienation to DSM
Dusty
Group of 50 Mental Health Experts Pushing to Add Parental Alienation to DSM
November 2nd, 2009 by Glenn Sacks, MA, Executive Director
Now 23, divorced, and a parent herself, Anne has recognized only recently
that she was manipulated, that her long-held view of her father isn't
accurate. They live 2,000 miles apart but now try to speak daily. "I've
missed out on a great friendship with my dad," she says. "It hurts."
A group of 50 mental health experts from 10 countries are part of an effort
to add Parental Alienation to the 2012 edition of the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the American Psychiatric Association's
"bible" of diagnoses. According to psychiatrist William Bernet, this "would
spur insurance coverage, stimulate more systematic research, lend credence
to a charge of parental alienation in court, and raise the odds that
children would get timely treatment."
Few family law cases are as heartbreaking as those involving Parental
Alienation. In PA cases, one parent has turned his or her children against
the other parent, destroying the loving bonds the children and the target
parent once enjoyed.
Numerous misguided feminist groups oppose recognition of Parental Alienation
in court or in DSM. Some of these opponents raise legitimate concerns. For
example, Janet Johnston, a feminist-oriented clinical sociologist/justice
studies professor, fears that PAS could be invoked by an abusive parent to
gain rights to a child.
She is correct-this can happen. One example is the Joyce Murphy case in San
Diego-to learn more, see my post Feminist Opponents of Shared Parenting Get
It Right in Parental Alienation/Abuse Accusation Case. The solution to
Johnston's concern is to have courts make thorough, unbiased investigations
into abuse claims.
It also true, as some opponents of recognizing Parental Alienation assert,
that there are fathers (or mothers) who have alienated their own children
through their personality defects or lack of parenting skills, and who
attempt to shift the blame to their children's mothers (or fathers) by
falsely claiming PAS.
However, some opponents of recognizing Parental Alienation are on the
lunatic fringe, denying that Parental Alienation exists at all, and spinning
fantasies of masses of mothers losing custody to molesting fathers. In most
of the cases put forth in the media by these extremists, no abuse occurred
and the mothers only lost custody of their children after going way out of
their way to destroy the relationship between the children and their
fathers. Some examples of these frauds include the Genia Shockome, Sadia
Loeliger, and Holly Collins cases
Even if many claims of Parental Alienation were false-and there's no
evidence to suggest this-it still would not mean that opponents' assertions
that PA doesn't exist are credible. In family law cases, false accusations
of any and all types of maltreatment, including PA, are used to gain
advantage. Since false accusations of domestic violence and child sexual
abuse are common, should we then conclude that battering and molestation don't
exist?
Another issue opponents of recognizing Parental Alienation have latched on
to is the debate over whether Parental Alienation should by considered a
syndrome. They then argue that if it's not a syndrome, it can't be real. I
believe the assertion that Parental Alienation is a "syndrome" is
defensible, but regardless, the key fact is that alienating behavior and
Parental Alienation campaigns exist and are a major problem in divorce.
Johnston also asserts that in teens, a level of parental rejection appearing
similar to Parental Alienation might be a developmentally normal response.
This assertion is questionable. Johnston is correct that many teens reject
their parents to various degrees. However, there's a difference between this
and active alienation.
Several of my wife's male friends have been alienated from their teenage
children, and many of them try to mask their pain by shrugging and saying,
"You know how teenagers are." Well, I do, and I don't buy it. For example,
my 17-year-old son is convinced that I'm a hopelessly out of touch old
loser, and I certainly don't disagree with him. Still, he clearly loves me,
and will sometimes (grudgingly) acknowledge it. That's not Parental
Alienation, which is far more visceral.
The new U.S. News & World Report article Parental Alienation: A Mental
Diagnosis? (11/2/09) covers the efforts of Parental Alienation experts to
get PA accepted by DSM. I suggest that readers comment on the piece by
sending Letters to the Editor at let...@usnews.com.
In it, author Lindsay Lyon writes:
From an early age, Anne was taught by her mother to fear her father.
Behind his back, her mom warned that he was unpredictable and dangerous; any
time he'd invite her to do anything-a walk in the woods, a trip to the art
store-she would craft an excuse not to go. "I was under the impression that
he was crazy, that at any moment he could just pop and do something violent
to hurt me," says Anne, who prefers that only her middle name be used to
guard her family's privacy.
Typical of a phenomenon some mental-health experts now label "parental
alienation," her view of him became so negative, she says, that her mother
persuaded her to lie during a custody hearing when the couple divorced. Then
14, she told the judge that her dad was physically abusive. Was he? "No,"
she says. "But I was convinced that he would [be]." After her mother won
custody, Anne all but severed contact with her father for years.
If a growing faction of the mental-health community has its way, Anne's
experience will one day soon be an actual diagnosis. The concept of parental
alienation, which is highly controversial, is being described as one in
which children strongly attach to one parent and reject the other in the
false belief that he or she is bad or dangerous.
"It's heartbreaking," says William Bernet, a child and adolescent
psychiatrist and professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, "to
have your 10-year-old suddenly, in a matter of weeks, go from loving you and
hiking with you.to saying you're a horrible, ugly person." These aren't kids
who simply prefer one parent over the other, he says. That's normal. These
kids doggedly resist contact with a parent, sometimes permanently, out of an
irrational hate or fear.
Bernet is leading an effort to add "parental alienation" to the next
edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the
American Psychiatric Association's "bible" of diagnoses, scheduled for 2012.
He and some 50 contributing authors from 10 countries will make their case
in the American Journal of Family Therapy early next year. Inclusion, says
Bernet, would spur insurance coverage, stimulate more systematic research,
lend credence to a charge of parental alienation in court, and raise the
odds that children would get timely treatment.
But many experts balk at labeling the phenomenon an official disorder. "I
really get concerned about spreading the definition of mental illness too
wide," says Elissa Benedek, a child and adolescent psychiatrist in Ann
Arbor, Mich., and a past president of the APA. There's no question in her
mind that kids become alienated from a loving parent in many divorces with
little or no justification, and she's seen plenty of kids kick and scream
all the way to the car when visitation is enforced. But, she says, "this is
not a mentally ill child".
In any case, divorcing parents should be aware that hostilities may
seriously harm the kids. Sometimes manipulation is blatant, as with parents
who conceal phone calls, gifts, or letters, then use the "lack of contact"
as proof that the other parent doesn't love the child. Sometimes the
influence is more subtle ("I'm sure nothing bad will happen to you at Mommy's
house") or even unintentional ("I've put a cellphone in your suitcase. Call
when everyone's asleep to tell me you're OK").
"The long-term implications [of alienation] are pretty severe," says Amy
Baker, director of research at the Vincent J. Fontana Center for Child
Protection in New York and a contributing author of Bernet's proposal. In a
study culminating in a 2007 book, Adult Children of Parental Alienation
Syndrome, she interviewed 40 "survivors" and found that many were depressed,
guilt ridden, and filled with self-loathing. Kids develop identity through
relationships with both their parents, she says. When they are told one is
no good, they believe, "I'm half no good."
Now 23, divorced, and a parent herself, Anne has recognized only recently
that she was manipulated, that her long-held view of her father isn't
accurate. They live 2,000 miles apart but now try to speak daily. "I've
missed out on a great friendship with my dad," she says. "It hurts."
Lyon did a pretty good job with the article but her assertions about
Parental Alienation and the American Psychological Association are
incomplete. She wrote "The American Psychological Association has issued a
statement that 'there is no evidence within the psychological literature of
a diagnosable parental alienation syndrome.'" Yet the APA has given mixed
messages on PAS-to learn more, click here.
The controversy over Parental Alienation is largely political. Children are
vulnerable and impressionable, and parents in emotionally-charged divorces
are quite capable of using them as tools of their anger. It is true that
family courts must weed out false claims of PA made by abusive or
manipulative parents. It is also true that courts must act decisively to
protect children from the emotional abuse inflicted by alienating ones.