Parental alienation is the family-court cartel’s favorite magic trick: abuse allegations go in, custody transfers come out, and everyone pretends science happened. The theory’s pedigree is rotten. Its courtroom use is worse. It turns normal trauma responses into “proof” of manipulation, treats protective parents as schemers, and gives judges a lazy escape hatch from hard investigations. Jones-Soderman is right to connect the money, too. Federal funding streams, preferred providers, evaluators, therapists, lawyers, and court insiders all benefit from delay, complexity, and manufactured doubt. Children are not lab rats for discredited theories. They are not revenue units. They are not props in a custody blood sport. If a child reports abuse, investigate it seriously. Test the facts. Examine the experts. Follow the money. And stop letting the family-court machine launder institutional cowardice through fake science.
Yes will help for the mere price of $3500 when victim is already set up to loose her apartment. When you couldn’t believe it could possibly get any worse- Bam, not one official department or persons in those departments will answer her request for records. Literally time after time. This weekend when she had both the children, it is normally scheduled they are separated for visitation. This is odd because abusive father that has had majority of custody is grooming the children to dismiss mom. The things the little girl says or questions she asks are so obviously being like brain washing. What topped it off is over the weekend she was unpacking his bookbag, there was a coloring page of a little girl with blond hair and pink bow. The word MOM was written on it and wait, just wait…… Ready? There was a big X crossing over the picture. It floored me, … But she basically has been kind of erased from the town. All by plotting from the man that physically beat her in front of kids. (Felony DV) with the help of his family and his paroled girlfriend that continue to harass, stalk and spread untruths.So much for all the publicity she gave to other people on podcasts and has the balls to #Standup. But taking a seat in the corner for now while a couple of people keep trying to fight. Something has to break. Sorry not too flattering for some … but not sorry!
Thank you for the work and the post, I needed to know I am not alone while I am pushing back against this cruel system, it almost killed me fighting for my kids.
Jill Jones-Soderman makes a number of misrepresentations and innuendo in her opening statement of this article/comment. First and foremost she makes the following false statement of disinformation "How the Discredited Theory of Parental Alienation Has Corrupted Family Courts Across America". PARENTAL ALIENATION IS NOT A DISCREDITED THEORY!!!!! Parental Alienation SYNDROME is the discredited theory she talks about. These two theories are separate and different entities. Further false statements by Jones-Soderman creating misinformation and disinformation are as follows:
"Dr. Richard Gardner, MD, committed suicide in May 2003. His clientele consisted almost exclusively of fathers accused of incest and sexual abuse of their children. It was for this specific group that he developed and promoted his theories. He left behind a legacy of severely disturbing, dangerous, and fraudulent concepts that have been widely adopted by bar associations and judicial fiat in many jurisdictions across the United States. Many family court actors have embraced these ideas, frequently transferring children who report abuse into the custody and isolation of their accused abusers. Numerous scientific reviews and professional bodies have thoroughly rejected Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) as lacking empirical support. The claims upon which Gardner based his theory are contradicted by empirical research, including large-scale studies showing that child sexual abuse allegations in custody cases are relatively rare and that the vast majority of those allegations are substantiated when properly investigated."
According to his son, Dr. Richard Gardner, MD, committed suicide because he suffered severe chronic/acute debilitating pain over his entire body. Jones-Soderman claims that his clientele consisted exclusively of fathers accused of "incest" and "sexual abuse" of their children. Interestingly, the use of terms "incest" and "sexual abuse" of children in the family court milieu was/is considered the "atomic bomb" in divorce custody cases when brought by a malicious narcissistic parent hell-bent on keeping the child(ren) from the other parent--most often fathers. Given that over 90% of all custody awards in family court go to mothers, and over 75% of cases involve parenting time/visitation interference, it is axiomatic that some of the parental alienation allegations are actually involving egregious parenting time/parental rights violations.
Yes, Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) has not been received as credible in family court matters. But Jones-Soderman lumps PAS with the term Parental Alienation which is a separate, credible diagnosis and has a different set of variables, elements and connotations. Even though Parental Alienation was NOT defined specifically in the DSM-V (DSM-5) desktop manual for mental health experts, Dr. Bill Bernet, of Vanderbilt University, lead a group of interested professionals in encouraging the DSM-5 editing group to include Parental Alienation Disorder. The new DSM-5 was published on May 18, 2013 and is the reference book for psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health providers Here is Dr. Bernet’s unedited analysis of the result.
The DSM-5 Task Force stated 2 or 3 years ago that they did not want parental alienation to be a separate diagnosis in DSM-5, but they thought that parental alienation could be considered an example of other diagnoses that are in DSM-5.
The actual words “parental alienation” are not in DSM-5, but there are several diagnoses that can be used in these cases. I would say the “spirit” of parental alienation is in DSM-5, even if the words are not.
"PARENT-CHILD RELATIONAL PROBLEM now has a discussion in DSM-5, not just a label. The discussion explains that cognitive problems in parent-child relational problem “may include negative attributions of the other’s intentions, hostility toward or scapegoating of the other, and unwarranted feelings of estrangement.” That is a pretty good description of a child’s view of the alienated parent, although it is an unfortunate use of the word “estrangement.”
CHILD PSYCHOLOGICAL ABUSE is a new diagnosis in DSM-5. It is defined as “nonaccidental verbal or symbolic acts by a child’s parent or caregiver that result, or have reasonable potential to result, in significant psychological harm to the child.” In many instances, the behavior of the alienating parent constitutes child psychological abuse.
CHILD AFFECTED BY PARENTAL RELATIONSHIP DISTRESS is another new diagnosis in DSM-5. It should be used “when the focus of clinical attention if the negative effects of parental relationship discord (e.g., high levels of conflict, distress, or disparagement) on a child in the family, including effects on the child’s mental or other physical disorders.” That is also a good description of how parental alienation comes about.
FACTITIOUS DISORDER IMPOSED ON ANOTHER is the DSM-5 terminology for factitious disorder by proxy or Munchausen disorder by proxy. Its definition is “falsification of physical or psychological signs or symptoms, or induction of injury or disease, in another, associated with identified deception.” In some cases, that would describe the behavior of the alienating parent.
DELUSIONAL SYMPTOMS IN PARTNER OF INDIVIDUAL WITH DELUSIONAL DISORDER is the DSM-5 terminology for shared psychotic disorder or folie a deux. The definition is: “In the context of a relationship, the delusional material from the dominant partner provides content for delusional belief by the individual who may not otherwise entirely meet criteria for delusional disorder.”
There are at least 168 known elements of Parental Alienation (not the Syndrome). Many courts have endorsed Parental Alienation (not PAS) as a cause of action in divorce custody matters to reverse custody, increase parenting time, enforce parental rights, award money damages, award custody to the victimized parent, and bring criminal charges against the offending parent. There are hundreds of reported and unreported Parental Alienation caselaw decisions in New York, New Jersey, and numerous other states granting the parent who was victimized with false allegations of "incest" or "child sexual abuse" in the offending parent's campaign of parental alienation.
In the "Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS-4) Report to Congress (2020)", it shows over 75% of all child sexual abuse occurs by mothers and their boyfriends/ paramours. Why? Because the mother, usually single mothers, has custody of the children. Further, according to a massive megastudy by Dr. Martin Fiebert, Ph.D. (Cal. State Univ.), "References Examining Assaults by Women on Their Spouses or Male Partners: An Updated Annotated Bibliography", (2014), it is an annotated bibliography describing 343 scholarly investigations (270 empirical studies and 73 reviews) demonstrating that women are as physically aggressive as men (or more) in their relationships with their spouses or opposite-sex partners. The aggregate sample size in the reviewed studies exceeds 440,850 people.
Jones-Soderman attempts to paint fathers/men with a broad brush that they are all child predators, when in fact, women/mothers are the major contributors to child abuse abuse and child sexual abuse. Apparently, it seems that Jones-Soderman has an "ax to grind" against men, or has had serious professional repercussions from her own position on the subject. But, that's a story for a later date.
malicious narcissistic parent hell-bent on keeping the child(ren) from the other parent--most often fathers… it always goes there(poor fathers) Your percentages also seem way off because most posts on Facebook are mothers. But people just can’t keep gender neutral. This just divides.. the problem is the utter disgust family court leaves for our children and grandchildren
According to the CDC, 1 in 4 girls is sexually abused and 1 in 5 boys. Half of the time the perpetrator is a father or father figure. Mothers can also abuse, but it is statistically far less common. 98% of
sex abuse victims are not believed or protected in family courts and are coerced into contact with alleged child rapists. A mental health expert testified in a case I am directly familiar with that “even sexually abusive fathers shouldn’t be discounted.”Richard Gardner espoused similar theories on the record.
Child sexual abuse is such a big problem, this amounts to approximately 58,000 victims in the US each year alone who are not protected in family courts because their abuse is a lucrative commodity for the parental alienation cabal and the coercive reunification industries.
The family courts are a multi-billion dollar child sex trafficking operation. I’m sorry Bruce if you have no place in your heart to recognize them and their suffering, but it’s time for the real truth to get out and I thank Jill Jones-Soderman for getting this information out and all of her tireless work on behalf of child abuse victims who have no voice in family court.
Please provide your statistics from the CDC. I provided it from the NIS-4 Congressional Report which includes the CDC statistics. You state "Mothers can also abuse, but it is statistically far less common". Is that an anecdotal comment, or is it your own facts????? Child sex abuse is far larger than you think. Over 450,000 Illegal alien children have been trafficked, abused and sexually abused thanks to the Democrat-Communist Party policies in this nation, specifically under the Biden-Harris-Mayorkas-Bacerra Administration. Eliminating illegal aliens from this country would go a long way to stop child sex abuse and trafficking.
The real truth is out. Child sex abuse is not a one sex issue. You'd better do your research before opening your mouth and showing people who you really are.
Bruce, the problem here is that you are making one fair distinction and then building a bad factual structure on top of it.
You are correct that Parental Alienation Syndrome and parental alienation conduct are not identical. PAS, as Richard Gardner promoted it, has been widely criticized and was not accepted as a standalone diagnosis in the DSM. But alienating conduct — disparagement, access interference, loyalty coercion, false narratives, and unjustified parent-child estrangement — can exist and can harm children. Courts can and do consider that conduct. That does not mean “parental alienation” is a recognized DSM diagnosis or a scientific trump card that automatically defeats abuse allegations.
Even William Bernet’s formulation does not prove what you are claiming. Bernet argued that the “spirit” of parental alienation could be found in DSM-5 categories such as Parent-Child Relational Problem, Child Psychological Abuse, Child Affected by Parental Relationship Distress, Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another, and related concepts. But the actual words “parental alienation” were not included in DSM-5 as a separate diagnosis. That is the key distinction. Relevant discussion here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/co-parenting-after-divorce/201305/the-dsm-5-and-parental-alienation
Your NIS-4 claim is the biggest factual problem. You wrote that the Fourth National Incidence Study shows “over 75% of all child sexual abuse occurs by mothers and their boyfriends/paramours.” That is not what NIS-4 says. NIS-4 says the opposite on perpetrator sex in sexual-abuse cases: “The prevalence of male perpetrators was strongest in the category of sexual abuse, where 87% of children were abused by a male compared to only 11% by a female.” The report also says biological mothers and biological fathers were both frequent perpetrators among abused children generally, but that is all abuse, not child sexual abuse specifically. You cannot take aggregate maltreatment numbers — neglect, physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse — and repackage them as a child-sex-abuse statistic. NIS-4 full report: https://acf.gov/sites/default/files/documents/opre/nis4_report_congress_full_pdf_jan2010.pdf. Harvard-hosted copy: https://cap.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sedlaknis.pdf
Amanda’s CDC citation also needs precision, but it is substantially closer to the mark than your NIS-4 claim. The CDC states that child sexual abuse is underreported and that research estimates “at least one in four girls and one in 20 boys” in the United States experience child sexual abuse. The CDC also states that about 90% of child sexual abuse is perpetrated by someone known and trusted by the child or the child’s family. CDC source: https://www.cdc.gov/child-abuse-neglect/about/about-child-sexual-abuse.html
The custody-litigation data also cuts against the idea that sexual-abuse allegations are routinely deployed as some common “atomic bomb.” Thoennes and Tjaden’s study, “The extent, nature, and validity of sexual abuse allegations in custody/visitation disputes,” found that only a small proportion of contested custody and visitation cases involve sexual-abuse allegations. PubMed abstract: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2340426/
On Gardner, yes, his son reportedly attributed Gardner’s suicide to severe pain from reflex sympathetic dystrophy. That may be relevant to correcting any insinuation about why Gardner died. But it does not validate PAS. The Los Angeles Times obituary reported both facts: Gardner suffered severe pain and died by suicide, and his PAS theory was not recognized by the American Psychiatric Association or the American Medical Association. LA Times obituary: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jun-12-me-gardner12-story.html
So the honest position is this:
-PAS and parental alienation conduct are not the same thing.
-Parental interference can be real and damaging.
-Abuse allegations can be true, false, mistaken, weaponized, mishandled, or ignored.
-“Parental alienation” should not be used as a courtroom broom to sweep abuse allegations under the rug.
-Abuse allegations should not be used as a custody grenade without proof.
-The court’s job is to prove the abuse, prove the alienation, or stop letting either allegation function as narrative warfare.
Jill Jones-Soderman may use a broad brush when she attacks the Gardner/PAS legacy. But your response uses a broad brush in the other direction. The family-court machine has failed children and parents precisely because it lets favored narratives replace disciplined fact-finding. The answer is not “believe all mothers” or “believe all fathers.” The answer is evidence, competent investigation, and an end to expert theater.
We agree to disagree. There is a dichotomy at play here. It's Jones-Soderman trying to tie Parental Alienation (PA) to Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS). It can't be further from the truth. Courts around the nation have upheld PA cases and this is supported by caselaw and law. New York, New Jersey and most other states have caselaw on PA involved in interference with parenting time, parental rights, and money damages. Many cases of PA, where one parent (most often the father) has his parenting time/visitation/parental rights egregiously interfered with by the other parent, is awarded custody, money damages, reduction or termination in child support (and spousal support). This is all supported by law and caselaw.
First, I never said that "parental alienation" is in the DSM-V manual. I showed the new terminology that reflects parental alienation and is used daily in the family courts. A lot of what is being said here is anecdotal comments. If we want to get into anecdotal, I've been involved in the family courts of NJ, NY, GA, NC and elsewhere for over 40 years as a legal technician/paralegal. I've helped thousands of fathers and some mothers with their divorce, custody, parenting time, support, equitable distribution cases. I've put together federal lawsuits for many that may not have one money, but rattled the courts (1 Federal case I did settle for the client for $85,000). I've seen the terms Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another used in several custody interference cases. I've seen it misused against an Orthodox Jewish couple in Brooklyn, NY when they were homeschooling their child. Lawyers screwed them and they haven't seen their daughter in over 5 years. I've gotten involved and have been working on getting back their child. I've been involved in cases of Child Psychological Abuse, Child Affected by Parental Relationship Distress. I pushed for money damages and the court awarded more time for the father, and even awarded dual joint residential custody.
Secondly, as for the NIS-4 claims, at Chapter 6, pg. 6-8, even though males were a majority of perpetrators of child sexual abuse, they were more likely to be the child's NON-biological parent or boyfriend/paramour of the biological mother. Children who are sexually abused by their biological parents have the highest percentage of female perpetrators (22% vs. 6% or less in other relationship categories).
Thirdly, your citing and referencing the Thoennes and Tjaden study that my comment that the custody-litigation data also "cuts against the idea" that sexual-abuse allegations are routinely deployed as some common “atomic bomb, the study is approaching 40 years old. In a recent study by Harman and Lorandos (2020), "Allegations of Family Violence in Court: How Parental Alienation Affects Judicial Outcomes", they tested a set of findings reported by Meier et al. (2019) related to the use of parental alienation as a legal defense in cases in which there are allegations of domestic violence and child abuse. A total of 967 appellate reports in which PA was found or alleged were sequentially selected from a legal database search. Nineteen research assistants blind to the study’s hypotheses coded the reports for the variables used to test six preregistered hypotheses using a series of logistic and linear regression models. They failed to find any support for the conclusions made by Meier et al. Parents found (vs. alleged) to have alienated their children, regardless of their gender, had greater odds of losing parenting time, losing custody of their children, and losing their case. These findings held even when the accusing parent had been found to have been abusive. Losses or decreases in custody were not found when the (alleged) alienated parent was found to have been abusive. Results indicate that the majority of courts carefully weigh allegations of all forms of family violence in their determinations about the best interests of children. These findings, along with several others, raise concerns that the methodological, analytical, and statistical problems they detailed about Meier’s report that make her conclusions untrustworthy. Discussion focuses on the importance of using open science practices for transparent and rigorous empirical testing of hypotheses and the dangers of misusing scientific findings to mislead influential professionals who affect the well-being of millions of families. Even though the exact term of false child sexual abuse was not used in this study, there are overtones of it. When researching "False allegations of child sexual abuse studies", the Harmon & Lorandos study came up. This is not a "one-off".
As for Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, their study of child sexual abuse was heavily slanted against men. They were instrumental in writing a major report for the U.S. Dept. of Justice called "The Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence and Consequences of Violence Against Women" (2000) which was heavily slanted in favor of women and against men. https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/183781.pdf
If we are to show one side of the equation, we must show the other side as well. Dr. Martin Fiebert, Ph.D. (Cal. State Univ., Long Beach) did a megastudy showing women are as more violent than men. In "References Examining Assaults by Women on Their Spouses or Male Partners: An Updated Annotated Bibliography" (June 2014), this annotated bibliography describes 343 scholarly investigations (270 empirical studies and 73 reviews) demonstrating that women are as physically aggressive as men (or more) in their relationships with their spouses or opposite-sex partners. The aggregate sample size in the reviewed studies exceeds 440,850 people.
Wild-eyed accusations that somehow men are vicious neanderthal brutes is nothing more than irresponsible, divisive, mental masturbations by radicals.
On the Dr. Martin Fiebert, Ph.D. (Cal. State Univ., Long Beach) megastudy showing women are more violent than men - I have no doubt that is true. Most of the violent-psychopathic-BPD men are already in prison. Over 80 percent of the women with the same psychological profile are still walking the streets. Statistically, it's why lesbian divorce is so goddamn messy!
Parental alienation is the family-court cartel’s favorite magic trick: abuse allegations go in, custody transfers come out, and everyone pretends science happened. The theory’s pedigree is rotten. Its courtroom use is worse. It turns normal trauma responses into “proof” of manipulation, treats protective parents as schemers, and gives judges a lazy escape hatch from hard investigations. Jones-Soderman is right to connect the money, too. Federal funding streams, preferred providers, evaluators, therapists, lawyers, and court insiders all benefit from delay, complexity, and manufactured doubt. Children are not lab rats for discredited theories. They are not revenue units. They are not props in a custody blood sport. If a child reports abuse, investigate it seriously. Test the facts. Examine the experts. Follow the money. And stop letting the family-court machine launder institutional cowardice through fake science.
Yes will help for the mere price of $3500 when victim is already set up to loose her apartment. When you couldn’t believe it could possibly get any worse- Bam, not one official department or persons in those departments will answer her request for records. Literally time after time. This weekend when she had both the children, it is normally scheduled they are separated for visitation. This is odd because abusive father that has had majority of custody is grooming the children to dismiss mom. The things the little girl says or questions she asks are so obviously being like brain washing. What topped it off is over the weekend she was unpacking his bookbag, there was a coloring page of a little girl with blond hair and pink bow. The word MOM was written on it and wait, just wait…… Ready? There was a big X crossing over the picture. It floored me, … But she basically has been kind of erased from the town. All by plotting from the man that physically beat her in front of kids. (Felony DV) with the help of his family and his paroled girlfriend that continue to harass, stalk and spread untruths.So much for all the publicity she gave to other people on podcasts and has the balls to #Standup. But taking a seat in the corner for now while a couple of people keep trying to fight. Something has to break. Sorry not too flattering for some … but not sorry!
Justice for Ryder
Thank you for the work and the post, I needed to know I am not alone while I am pushing back against this cruel system, it almost killed me fighting for my kids.
Jill Jones-Soderman makes a number of misrepresentations and innuendo in her opening statement of this article/comment. First and foremost she makes the following false statement of disinformation "How the Discredited Theory of Parental Alienation Has Corrupted Family Courts Across America". PARENTAL ALIENATION IS NOT A DISCREDITED THEORY!!!!! Parental Alienation SYNDROME is the discredited theory she talks about. These two theories are separate and different entities. Further false statements by Jones-Soderman creating misinformation and disinformation are as follows:
"Dr. Richard Gardner, MD, committed suicide in May 2003. His clientele consisted almost exclusively of fathers accused of incest and sexual abuse of their children. It was for this specific group that he developed and promoted his theories. He left behind a legacy of severely disturbing, dangerous, and fraudulent concepts that have been widely adopted by bar associations and judicial fiat in many jurisdictions across the United States. Many family court actors have embraced these ideas, frequently transferring children who report abuse into the custody and isolation of their accused abusers. Numerous scientific reviews and professional bodies have thoroughly rejected Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) as lacking empirical support. The claims upon which Gardner based his theory are contradicted by empirical research, including large-scale studies showing that child sexual abuse allegations in custody cases are relatively rare and that the vast majority of those allegations are substantiated when properly investigated."
According to his son, Dr. Richard Gardner, MD, committed suicide because he suffered severe chronic/acute debilitating pain over his entire body. Jones-Soderman claims that his clientele consisted exclusively of fathers accused of "incest" and "sexual abuse" of their children. Interestingly, the use of terms "incest" and "sexual abuse" of children in the family court milieu was/is considered the "atomic bomb" in divorce custody cases when brought by a malicious narcissistic parent hell-bent on keeping the child(ren) from the other parent--most often fathers. Given that over 90% of all custody awards in family court go to mothers, and over 75% of cases involve parenting time/visitation interference, it is axiomatic that some of the parental alienation allegations are actually involving egregious parenting time/parental rights violations.
Yes, Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) has not been received as credible in family court matters. But Jones-Soderman lumps PAS with the term Parental Alienation which is a separate, credible diagnosis and has a different set of variables, elements and connotations. Even though Parental Alienation was NOT defined specifically in the DSM-V (DSM-5) desktop manual for mental health experts, Dr. Bill Bernet, of Vanderbilt University, lead a group of interested professionals in encouraging the DSM-5 editing group to include Parental Alienation Disorder. The new DSM-5 was published on May 18, 2013 and is the reference book for psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health providers Here is Dr. Bernet’s unedited analysis of the result.
The DSM-5 Task Force stated 2 or 3 years ago that they did not want parental alienation to be a separate diagnosis in DSM-5, but they thought that parental alienation could be considered an example of other diagnoses that are in DSM-5.
The actual words “parental alienation” are not in DSM-5, but there are several diagnoses that can be used in these cases. I would say the “spirit” of parental alienation is in DSM-5, even if the words are not.
"PARENT-CHILD RELATIONAL PROBLEM now has a discussion in DSM-5, not just a label. The discussion explains that cognitive problems in parent-child relational problem “may include negative attributions of the other’s intentions, hostility toward or scapegoating of the other, and unwarranted feelings of estrangement.” That is a pretty good description of a child’s view of the alienated parent, although it is an unfortunate use of the word “estrangement.”
CHILD PSYCHOLOGICAL ABUSE is a new diagnosis in DSM-5. It is defined as “nonaccidental verbal or symbolic acts by a child’s parent or caregiver that result, or have reasonable potential to result, in significant psychological harm to the child.” In many instances, the behavior of the alienating parent constitutes child psychological abuse.
CHILD AFFECTED BY PARENTAL RELATIONSHIP DISTRESS is another new diagnosis in DSM-5. It should be used “when the focus of clinical attention if the negative effects of parental relationship discord (e.g., high levels of conflict, distress, or disparagement) on a child in the family, including effects on the child’s mental or other physical disorders.” That is also a good description of how parental alienation comes about.
FACTITIOUS DISORDER IMPOSED ON ANOTHER is the DSM-5 terminology for factitious disorder by proxy or Munchausen disorder by proxy. Its definition is “falsification of physical or psychological signs or symptoms, or induction of injury or disease, in another, associated with identified deception.” In some cases, that would describe the behavior of the alienating parent.
DELUSIONAL SYMPTOMS IN PARTNER OF INDIVIDUAL WITH DELUSIONAL DISORDER is the DSM-5 terminology for shared psychotic disorder or folie a deux. The definition is: “In the context of a relationship, the delusional material from the dominant partner provides content for delusional belief by the individual who may not otherwise entirely meet criteria for delusional disorder.”
There are at least 168 known elements of Parental Alienation (not the Syndrome). Many courts have endorsed Parental Alienation (not PAS) as a cause of action in divorce custody matters to reverse custody, increase parenting time, enforce parental rights, award money damages, award custody to the victimized parent, and bring criminal charges against the offending parent. There are hundreds of reported and unreported Parental Alienation caselaw decisions in New York, New Jersey, and numerous other states granting the parent who was victimized with false allegations of "incest" or "child sexual abuse" in the offending parent's campaign of parental alienation.
In the "Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS-4) Report to Congress (2020)", it shows over 75% of all child sexual abuse occurs by mothers and their boyfriends/ paramours. Why? Because the mother, usually single mothers, has custody of the children. Further, according to a massive megastudy by Dr. Martin Fiebert, Ph.D. (Cal. State Univ.), "References Examining Assaults by Women on Their Spouses or Male Partners: An Updated Annotated Bibliography", (2014), it is an annotated bibliography describing 343 scholarly investigations (270 empirical studies and 73 reviews) demonstrating that women are as physically aggressive as men (or more) in their relationships with their spouses or opposite-sex partners. The aggregate sample size in the reviewed studies exceeds 440,850 people.
Jones-Soderman attempts to paint fathers/men with a broad brush that they are all child predators, when in fact, women/mothers are the major contributors to child abuse abuse and child sexual abuse. Apparently, it seems that Jones-Soderman has an "ax to grind" against men, or has had serious professional repercussions from her own position on the subject. But, that's a story for a later date.
malicious narcissistic parent hell-bent on keeping the child(ren) from the other parent--most often fathers… it always goes there(poor fathers) Your percentages also seem way off because most posts on Facebook are mothers. But people just can’t keep gender neutral. This just divides.. the problem is the utter disgust family court leaves for our children and grandchildren
Sounds like we are a bunch of Lab Rats.
According to the CDC, 1 in 4 girls is sexually abused and 1 in 5 boys. Half of the time the perpetrator is a father or father figure. Mothers can also abuse, but it is statistically far less common. 98% of
sex abuse victims are not believed or protected in family courts and are coerced into contact with alleged child rapists. A mental health expert testified in a case I am directly familiar with that “even sexually abusive fathers shouldn’t be discounted.”Richard Gardner espoused similar theories on the record.
Child sexual abuse is such a big problem, this amounts to approximately 58,000 victims in the US each year alone who are not protected in family courts because their abuse is a lucrative commodity for the parental alienation cabal and the coercive reunification industries.
The family courts are a multi-billion dollar child sex trafficking operation. I’m sorry Bruce if you have no place in your heart to recognize them and their suffering, but it’s time for the real truth to get out and I thank Jill Jones-Soderman for getting this information out and all of her tireless work on behalf of child abuse victims who have no voice in family court.
Please provide your statistics from the CDC. I provided it from the NIS-4 Congressional Report which includes the CDC statistics. You state "Mothers can also abuse, but it is statistically far less common". Is that an anecdotal comment, or is it your own facts????? Child sex abuse is far larger than you think. Over 450,000 Illegal alien children have been trafficked, abused and sexually abused thanks to the Democrat-Communist Party policies in this nation, specifically under the Biden-Harris-Mayorkas-Bacerra Administration. Eliminating illegal aliens from this country would go a long way to stop child sex abuse and trafficking.
The real truth is out. Child sex abuse is not a one sex issue. You'd better do your research before opening your mouth and showing people who you really are.
Bruce, the problem here is that you are making one fair distinction and then building a bad factual structure on top of it.
You are correct that Parental Alienation Syndrome and parental alienation conduct are not identical. PAS, as Richard Gardner promoted it, has been widely criticized and was not accepted as a standalone diagnosis in the DSM. But alienating conduct — disparagement, access interference, loyalty coercion, false narratives, and unjustified parent-child estrangement — can exist and can harm children. Courts can and do consider that conduct. That does not mean “parental alienation” is a recognized DSM diagnosis or a scientific trump card that automatically defeats abuse allegations.
Even William Bernet’s formulation does not prove what you are claiming. Bernet argued that the “spirit” of parental alienation could be found in DSM-5 categories such as Parent-Child Relational Problem, Child Psychological Abuse, Child Affected by Parental Relationship Distress, Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another, and related concepts. But the actual words “parental alienation” were not included in DSM-5 as a separate diagnosis. That is the key distinction. Relevant discussion here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/co-parenting-after-divorce/201305/the-dsm-5-and-parental-alienation
Your NIS-4 claim is the biggest factual problem. You wrote that the Fourth National Incidence Study shows “over 75% of all child sexual abuse occurs by mothers and their boyfriends/paramours.” That is not what NIS-4 says. NIS-4 says the opposite on perpetrator sex in sexual-abuse cases: “The prevalence of male perpetrators was strongest in the category of sexual abuse, where 87% of children were abused by a male compared to only 11% by a female.” The report also says biological mothers and biological fathers were both frequent perpetrators among abused children generally, but that is all abuse, not child sexual abuse specifically. You cannot take aggregate maltreatment numbers — neglect, physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse — and repackage them as a child-sex-abuse statistic. NIS-4 full report: https://acf.gov/sites/default/files/documents/opre/nis4_report_congress_full_pdf_jan2010.pdf. Harvard-hosted copy: https://cap.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sedlaknis.pdf
Amanda’s CDC citation also needs precision, but it is substantially closer to the mark than your NIS-4 claim. The CDC states that child sexual abuse is underreported and that research estimates “at least one in four girls and one in 20 boys” in the United States experience child sexual abuse. The CDC also states that about 90% of child sexual abuse is perpetrated by someone known and trusted by the child or the child’s family. CDC source: https://www.cdc.gov/child-abuse-neglect/about/about-child-sexual-abuse.html
The custody-litigation data also cuts against the idea that sexual-abuse allegations are routinely deployed as some common “atomic bomb.” Thoennes and Tjaden’s study, “The extent, nature, and validity of sexual abuse allegations in custody/visitation disputes,” found that only a small proportion of contested custody and visitation cases involve sexual-abuse allegations. PubMed abstract: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2340426/
On Gardner, yes, his son reportedly attributed Gardner’s suicide to severe pain from reflex sympathetic dystrophy. That may be relevant to correcting any insinuation about why Gardner died. But it does not validate PAS. The Los Angeles Times obituary reported both facts: Gardner suffered severe pain and died by suicide, and his PAS theory was not recognized by the American Psychiatric Association or the American Medical Association. LA Times obituary: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jun-12-me-gardner12-story.html
So the honest position is this:
-PAS and parental alienation conduct are not the same thing.
-Parental interference can be real and damaging.
-Abuse allegations can be true, false, mistaken, weaponized, mishandled, or ignored.
-“Parental alienation” should not be used as a courtroom broom to sweep abuse allegations under the rug.
-Abuse allegations should not be used as a custody grenade without proof.
-The court’s job is to prove the abuse, prove the alienation, or stop letting either allegation function as narrative warfare.
Jill Jones-Soderman may use a broad brush when she attacks the Gardner/PAS legacy. But your response uses a broad brush in the other direction. The family-court machine has failed children and parents precisely because it lets favored narratives replace disciplined fact-finding. The answer is not “believe all mothers” or “believe all fathers.” The answer is evidence, competent investigation, and an end to expert theater.
We agree to disagree. There is a dichotomy at play here. It's Jones-Soderman trying to tie Parental Alienation (PA) to Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS). It can't be further from the truth. Courts around the nation have upheld PA cases and this is supported by caselaw and law. New York, New Jersey and most other states have caselaw on PA involved in interference with parenting time, parental rights, and money damages. Many cases of PA, where one parent (most often the father) has his parenting time/visitation/parental rights egregiously interfered with by the other parent, is awarded custody, money damages, reduction or termination in child support (and spousal support). This is all supported by law and caselaw.
First, I never said that "parental alienation" is in the DSM-V manual. I showed the new terminology that reflects parental alienation and is used daily in the family courts. A lot of what is being said here is anecdotal comments. If we want to get into anecdotal, I've been involved in the family courts of NJ, NY, GA, NC and elsewhere for over 40 years as a legal technician/paralegal. I've helped thousands of fathers and some mothers with their divorce, custody, parenting time, support, equitable distribution cases. I've put together federal lawsuits for many that may not have one money, but rattled the courts (1 Federal case I did settle for the client for $85,000). I've seen the terms Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another used in several custody interference cases. I've seen it misused against an Orthodox Jewish couple in Brooklyn, NY when they were homeschooling their child. Lawyers screwed them and they haven't seen their daughter in over 5 years. I've gotten involved and have been working on getting back their child. I've been involved in cases of Child Psychological Abuse, Child Affected by Parental Relationship Distress. I pushed for money damages and the court awarded more time for the father, and even awarded dual joint residential custody.
Secondly, as for the NIS-4 claims, at Chapter 6, pg. 6-8, even though males were a majority of perpetrators of child sexual abuse, they were more likely to be the child's NON-biological parent or boyfriend/paramour of the biological mother. Children who are sexually abused by their biological parents have the highest percentage of female perpetrators (22% vs. 6% or less in other relationship categories).
Thirdly, your citing and referencing the Thoennes and Tjaden study that my comment that the custody-litigation data also "cuts against the idea" that sexual-abuse allegations are routinely deployed as some common “atomic bomb, the study is approaching 40 years old. In a recent study by Harman and Lorandos (2020), "Allegations of Family Violence in Court: How Parental Alienation Affects Judicial Outcomes", they tested a set of findings reported by Meier et al. (2019) related to the use of parental alienation as a legal defense in cases in which there are allegations of domestic violence and child abuse. A total of 967 appellate reports in which PA was found or alleged were sequentially selected from a legal database search. Nineteen research assistants blind to the study’s hypotheses coded the reports for the variables used to test six preregistered hypotheses using a series of logistic and linear regression models. They failed to find any support for the conclusions made by Meier et al. Parents found (vs. alleged) to have alienated their children, regardless of their gender, had greater odds of losing parenting time, losing custody of their children, and losing their case. These findings held even when the accusing parent had been found to have been abusive. Losses or decreases in custody were not found when the (alleged) alienated parent was found to have been abusive. Results indicate that the majority of courts carefully weigh allegations of all forms of family violence in their determinations about the best interests of children. These findings, along with several others, raise concerns that the methodological, analytical, and statistical problems they detailed about Meier’s report that make her conclusions untrustworthy. Discussion focuses on the importance of using open science practices for transparent and rigorous empirical testing of hypotheses and the dangers of misusing scientific findings to mislead influential professionals who affect the well-being of millions of families. Even though the exact term of false child sexual abuse was not used in this study, there are overtones of it. When researching "False allegations of child sexual abuse studies", the Harmon & Lorandos study came up. This is not a "one-off".
As for Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, their study of child sexual abuse was heavily slanted against men. They were instrumental in writing a major report for the U.S. Dept. of Justice called "The Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence and Consequences of Violence Against Women" (2000) which was heavily slanted in favor of women and against men. https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/183781.pdf
If we are to show one side of the equation, we must show the other side as well. Dr. Martin Fiebert, Ph.D. (Cal. State Univ., Long Beach) did a megastudy showing women are as more violent than men. In "References Examining Assaults by Women on Their Spouses or Male Partners: An Updated Annotated Bibliography" (June 2014), this annotated bibliography describes 343 scholarly investigations (270 empirical studies and 73 reviews) demonstrating that women are as physically aggressive as men (or more) in their relationships with their spouses or opposite-sex partners. The aggregate sample size in the reviewed studies exceeds 440,850 people.
Wild-eyed accusations that somehow men are vicious neanderthal brutes is nothing more than irresponsible, divisive, mental masturbations by radicals.
On the Dr. Martin Fiebert, Ph.D. (Cal. State Univ., Long Beach) megastudy showing women are more violent than men - I have no doubt that is true. Most of the violent-psychopathic-BPD men are already in prison. Over 80 percent of the women with the same psychological profile are still walking the streets. Statistically, it's why lesbian divorce is so goddamn messy!