Parental Alienation Syndrome

In the mid-80s, doctors began characterizing some of the behavior they were seeing in the children of divorcing parents. They realized that many children involved in custody disputes by their parents were developing unfounded feelings of alienation toward one parent or the other. This often arises from a variety of causes, but one of the strongest would be that the other parent would help vilify the alienated parent and feed the child’s disdain.

It is important to understand that these feelings would be unfounded. There would be no instances of abuse, neglect, or even bad parenting. The child’s feelings would not be based on an actual track record of bad parental behavior. The child would have a systematic habit of hateful or angry behavior toward a parent without any physical reason for doing so.

Unfortunately, the other, non-vilified parent helps stir up the child’s feelings toward the alienated parent. They can create or add to a feeling of discontent or disharmony with the other parent that the child will take to an extreme level.

In any case where there is a concrete reason for the alienation, like actual abuse, neglect, or abandonment, Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) is not applicable. PAS can only be present when the alienated parent is essentially innocent.

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Divorce can cause serious problems for all parts of a family. If you or a loved one is going through a divorce, contact the West Palm Beach divorce attorney of Eric N. Klein & Associates, P.A. by calling 561-353-2800.