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WHAT IS PARENTAL ALIENATION SYNDROME, AND WHY IS IT SO OFTEN
USED AGAINST MOTHERS?
A Syndrome is a group of medical of psychological symptoms that occur together.
For example, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychological syndrome
that is seen in some sexually abused children and adults (see Chapter 3). Rape
trauma syndrome describes the psychological aftereffects of rape. Battered
women syndrome helps explain why some abused women remain with their battering
partner.
Psychological and medical syndromes play an important role in understanding
behavior and providing treatment to victims of abuse. Unfortunately, there
is one so-called syndrome that, in my opinion, does tremendous harm to many
children and their parents, particularly mothers seeking custody in family court.
I speak of the psychiatrist Richard Gardner’s parental alienation syndrome.
Gardner writes:
One outgrowth of this warfare (over custody)
was the development in children of what I refer to as the parental alienation
syndrome. Typically, the child viciously vilifies one of the parents and idealizes
the other. This is not caused simply by parental brainwashing of the child.
Rather the children themselves contribute their own scenarios in support of
the favored parent. My experience has been that in about 80 to 90 percent of
cases the mother is the favored parent and the father the vilified one. (1989,
p. 2)
Gardner is a strident and outspoken critic of certain aspects
of the child protection system. Apparently, Gardner believes the United States
is in the throes of mass hysteria over child sexual abuse. He writes, “Sex-abuse
hysteria is omni-present” (1992, p.xxv). In his book titles Sex Abuse Hysteria:
Salem Witch Trials Revisited, Gardner is harshly critical of an unspecified
portion of the mental health professionals, investigators, an prosecutors trying
to protect children. For example, Gardner accuses some prosecutors of gratifying
their own sexual urges and sadistic tendencies through involvement in sexual
abuse cases. Gardner even goes so far as to say that “there is a bit of pedophilia
in every one of us.” (p. 118). It seems clear that Richard Gardner can’t claim
to be balanced when it comes to allegations of child sexual abuse.
Gardner’s parental alienation syndrome has not, to my knowledge,
been subjected to empirical study, research, or testing. Nor, to my knowledge,
has his discussion of the syndrome been published in peer-reviewed medical or
scientific journals. Rather, the syndrome is little more than Richard Gardner’s
opinions, based on his clinical experience. Of course, the fact that parental
alienation syndrome is based on one man’s experience does not imply something
is wrong with the syndrome. Nevertheless, it’s clear that the syndrome is not
accepted as a scientifically reliable way of telling whether an allegation is
true or false. Moreover, in my opinion, much of Gardner’s writing, including
his discussion of his parental alienation syndrome, is biased against women.
This gender bias infects the syndrome of women who allege child sexual abuse.
Because claims of parental alienation syndrome perpetuate and exacerbate gender
bias against women, I believe the syndrome sheds much more darkness than light
on this difficult issue.
In the final analysis, parental alienation syndrome is little
more than a scientific-sounding label for conduct that judges and lawyers have
known about for years. In some custody battles, one parent attempts to turn
the child against the other parent. The child becomes a pawn in the struggle
over custody. Such parental behavior is inexcusable and should not be tolerated.
In view of the damage inflicted by parental alienation syndrome and its bias
against women, however, the wiser course would be to discard the syndrome and
confront unethical behavior head on.
Another term coined by Richard Gardner is sex abuse legitimacy
scale. Of this scale, Lucy Berliner and Jon Conte write:
A specific and disturbing example of using (behavioral)
indicators as determinative of true versus false cases is that of the Sexual
Abuse Legitimacy (SAL) Scale. This “scale” claims to be able to discriminate
between bona fide” and “fabricated” cases by indicating the presence or absence
of a series of characteristics of cases. There are 26 criteria dealing with
the alleged victim,11 dealing with the accuser (usually the mother) and 13 dealing
with the accused (usually the father). Criteria are divided into those which
are very valuable (worth 3 points if present), moderately valuable (2points),
and low but potentially valuable (1 point). Separate scores are generated for
the child, the accused, and the accuser. Scores in the range of 50% of the
maximum or more are highly suggestive of bona fide sexual abuse and those quite
low (below 10%) are fabricated. Sample criteria are: for the child, very hesitant
to divulge the abuse or if no quality of a litany; for the accuser, appreciates
importance of relationship between the child and the father or initially denies
abuse; for the accused, allegations not in the context of divorce or career
choice involving children.
The SAL scale suffers many of the problems that all indicator
approaches suffer and a number which are unique. It is based entirely on the
author’s personal observations of an unknown number of cases seen in a forensic
practice. Although reference is made to studies carried out “between 1982 and
1987” these are unpublished, not described, and are of unknown value. There
are no studies which have determined if the scale can be coded reliably. Many
of the criteria are poorly defined. There have been no scientific tests of
the ability of SAL Scale to discriminate among cases. There is no evidence
that the numerical scores have any real meaning. Indeed, to our knowledge,
the entire scale and parental alienation syndrome upon which it is based have
never been subjected to any kind of peer review or empirical test. In sum,
there is no demonstrated ability of this scale to make valid predictions based
on the identified criteria. (1993, p. 114)
In 1988, Jon Conte wrote that Gardner’s sex abuse legitimacy
scale is “Probably the most unscientific piece of garbage I’ve seen in the field
in all my time. To base social policy on something as flimsy as this is exceedingly
dangerous (Moss, 1988, p. 26).
If you area woman and you allege child sexual abuse by your
child’s father, expect to be attacked with Richard Gardner’s parental alienation
syndrome. Gardner’s writing is popular among attorneys who represent men accused
of abuse and among some mental health professionals. Your attorney must be
prepared to counteract the misleading and destructive use of parental alienation
syndrome and the sexual abuse legitimacy scale.
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