Parental Alienation Counselor, Florida Therapist, PAS Telephone Therapy Sessions.

Initial Description

The concept of one parent attempting to separate their child from the other parent as punishment or part of a divorce have been described since at least the 1940s.

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 also stating that the indoctrination may be deliberate or unconscious on the part of the alienating parent. PAS was originally developed of as an explanation for the increase in the number of reports of child abuse in the 1980s.

Characteristics

PAS is characterized by a cluster of eight symptoms that appear in the child. These include a campaign of denigration and hatred against the targeted parent; weak, absurd, or frivolous rationalizations for this deprecation and hatred; lack of the usual ambivalence about the targeted parent; strong assertions that the decision to reject the parent is theirs alone (the "independent-thinker phenomenon"); reflexive support of the favored parent in the conflict; lack of guilt over the treatment of the alienated parent; use of borrowed scenarios and phrases from the alienating parent; and the denigration not just of the targeted parent but also to that parent's extended family and friends.