THE PARENTAL ALIENATION SYNDROME: AN ANALYSIS OF SIXTEEN SELECTED CASES

This study analyzed sixteen cases which appeared to meet Dr. Richard Gardner 's criteria for parental alienation syndrome as set forth in his 1987 book. Thesecases showed a wide diversity of characteristics but Gardner's criteria were useful in differentiating these cases from other postdivorce difficulties. Traditional interventions were ineffective in altering Ule alienation. Gardner (1985) has described cases of intense rejection of a parent by children after divorce which he referred to as "parental alienation syndrome" (PAS). He defined this syndrome as a disturbance occurring in children who are preoccupied with depreciation and criticism of a parent and denigration that is unjustified and/or exaggerated (GardnerJ987). He describes these children as "obsessed with hatred of a parent." The "parental alienation syndrome" has rapidly become a focus . of controversy within the mental health and the legal profession. It has been raised, as well as attacked, in cases involving allegations of domestic violence, parental substance abuse, and child sexual John Dunne, MD, is a psychiatrist in private practice in the Seattle area specializing in the evaluation and treatment of parents and children. Marsha Hedrick is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Seattle specializing in forensic evaluations of adults and children. The authors wish to thank Janis I? Maybeny, PhD, for her assistance in' analyzing cases contributed by her for this study. The editor wishes to acknowledge Dr. Richard Gardner's review of this manuscript Address correspondence to: 216 1st Avenue South U333, Seattle. WA 98104. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, Vol. 21(3/4) 1994 O 1994 by The Haworth Ress, Inc. All rights reserved. 21 D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ite ts bi bl io te ke t i B er ge n] a t 0 6: 19 0 3 Fe br ua ry 2 01 5 22 JOURNAL OF DNORCE & REMARRIAGE abuse, often strongly polarizing various mental health professionals involved in the cases. Advocacy groups for mothers, fathers, and sexual abuse victims have often been recxuited into the conflict. Very little is described in the literature about children who reject parents following marital separation. Jacobs (1988) describes a case in which five children rejected their father, apparently in response to their mother's extreme narcissistic rage. Wallerstein (1984) noted one child at the ten year follow-up, who rejected her mother, with whom she was living, after her father's attempt to change custody failed. Fidler (1988) also noted one case of a child who refused to see the noncustodial parent among the sample of 76 children referred to a family court clinic. More common in the literature is the failure to mention a child's rejection of a parent as one of the outcomes of divorce. Pearson and T h o e ~ e s (1990) noted a relatively high frequency of no or sporadic overnight visits with a non-residential parent. In 40% of the maternal sole custody and 30% of the paternal sole custody, the children had no overnight visits with a non-residential parent. In joint legal custody, 7% of the children living with their mothers and 20% of the children living with their fathers reported no overnights with the other parent. Although this is a relatively high frequency. the authors made no mention of the children's attitudes about their parents or the reason for no visits. Kalter et al. (1989) did not report any cases of the child rejecting a parent in their sample of 56 recruited pairs of children and mothers. Similarly, Oppenheimer et al. (1990) noted no cases in their sample of 46 elementary aged children, all living with their mothers, who rejected either parent. Review articles by Zaslow (1988) and by Heatherington et al. (1989) make no reference to parent alienation or to children rejecting a parent as an outcome following divorce. Rather than specifically identifying children's rejection of a parent, several authors made reference to difficulties arising when a child aligns with a parent or attempts to step into the role of protecting a vulnerable parent. For example, Johnston et al. (1989) noted that large numbers of children attempt to align with one or both angry parents which simultaneously helps the child feel more important and more vulnerable. They indicated hat the "typical" response of an older child was to be negative toward the other D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ite ts bi bl io te ke t i B er ge n] a t 0 6: 19 0 3 Fe br ua ry 2 01 5 John Dunne and Marsha Hedrick 23 parent to some degree and to perhaps reject that parent or refuse to visit. In another paper, Johnston and her colleagues (Johnston et al. 1987) noted a tendency of children to become protective toward a fragile parent, the frequency of role reversals, and a tendency to take responsibility in the parental disputes. Jacobs (1988) and Wallerstein (1985) refer to the intense rage of the narcissistically injured parent as being critical in the child's attitudes about the other parent. Wallerstein also refers to the pathological dependence of a parent on a child to protect against feelings of loss as being irnportant in the child's emerging need to protect that parent from intolerable feelings. Oppenheimer and colleagues (1990) concluded that the child's perceptions of parental attitudes and their own beliefs about the divorce have a significant influence on their post-separation adjustment, presumably also including the degree of hostility they felt toward one or both parents. The authors have been unable to locate any studies systematically analyzing the children and their families when one or more of the children in the family have rejected a parent after divorce. Such an analysis would be a necessary first step in attempting to validate Gardner's "parental alienation syndrome" and his hypothesis about etiology. This study was undertaken to explore characteristics of cases which appeared to meet Gardner's criteria, to search for commonalities among the cases, and to alert mental health professional to this infrequent but serious outcome in children after divorce. All cases presented here were referred to one or both of the authors for forensic evaluation or treatment of a seemingly intractable situation. Cases were selected for the study on the basis of at least one child in the family having intensely rejected one of the parents on the basis of trivial or unsubstantiated accusations, apparently meeting Gardner's criteria for "parental alienation syndrome." There was no attempt to match these cases with a control group of children whose parents had also separated and/or divorced.