Parental Alienation Syndrome

Parental Alienation Syndrome or PAS is a condition named conceived by the late Richard Gardener MD in the late 1980’s. It is described by Gardener as: a disorder that arises primarily in the context of child-custody disputes. Its primary manifestation is the child’s campaign of denigration against the parent, a campaign that has no justification. The disorder results from the combination of indoctrinations by the alienating parent and the child’s own contributions to the vilification of the alienated parent. 1 As gardener explains, in the vast majorly of cases the mother is the alienator and the father is the victim. PAS has three different types of intensity and eight very specific criteria that can be used for identification . This paper will examine the three types of intensity of PAS and the eight ways to identify it. Also briefly discuss some of the criticisms of PAS.
According to Richard Gardner, Parental Alienation Syndrome appears most often in the context of child custody litigation, but it is not limited to these situations.2 He says there are three levels of intensity that are associated with PAS. They are as follows: Mild Parental Alienation: Parents who lose control, make negative comments or exhibit negative behavior towards the other parent in front of the child, but feel bad about it later. Most parents going through a divorce engage in this level of Parental Alienation at some point. But they realize it, recognize they are wrong, worry about the effects on the child (or children), and take steps to stop inappropriate actions directed at the other parent. They understand that their child needs to have a healthy and loving relationship with both of their parents, to have the best chance of developing into a healthy adult someday. These parents rarely use the family court system to control or attack the other parent, and are rarely involved in starting a child custody battle.

Moderate Parental Alienation: These parents are very