What is Parental Alienation?
Parental Alienation is the outcome of a process where a child's relationship with one parent (the targeted parent) is negatively influenced by the actions of the other parent (the alienating parent). The child's rejection of the parent occurs in the absence of a reasonable justification for the rejection.*
The alienating parent can be a mother or a father, a grandparent, a step parent and even a non-family member.
Parental alienation can occur even when the relationship between the targeted child and targeted parent was once a very positive one. It occurs when a child is forced to choose one parent’s side over the other after family separation and during parenting disputes.
Siblings, grandparents, step parents, aunties, uncles and cousins can also be alienated during the process or individually alienated.
*Reference: Haines, J., Matthewson, M., & Turnbull, M. (2020). Understanding and Managing Parental Alienation: A Guide to Assessment and Intervention. Routledge.
Coercive Control
Coercive control is when someone strategically uses various behaviours to create dependency and control of another person. Through the use of these behaviours, the coercively controlling person creates a false world of confusion, fear and contradiction. Over time, coercively controlling behaviour erodes the other person’s sense of self and confidence. These behaviours are at the heart of parental alienation.
Parental Alienating Behaviours Power & Control Wheel
[Image] Adapted from:
Harman, J. J., & Matthewson, M. (2020). Parental alienating behaviors. In D. Lorandos and W. Bernet (Eds.), Parental Alienation - Science and Law,pp. 82-141. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas Publisher.
Levels of Parental Alienation
Mild Parental Alienation
The child is able to maintain contact with the targeted parent but is closely aligned with and concerned for the alienating parent who is distress over family separation.
Moderate Parental Alienation
The child struggles with the transition from the alienating parent’s care to the care of the targeted parent. Once they have made the transition the child quickly settles and bonds with the targeted parent.
Severe Parental Alienation
The child is emphatic in their rejection of the targeted parent and refuses all contact with them.
Causes of Parental Alienation
The challenge for a family following separation is to transition from an intact family structure to a separated family structure that is now united by the children and by the continuing parental roles and shared bonds of affection with the child. Sometimes the emotional reactions and psychological functioning of one parent in response to the separation prevents this transition. When this occurs children can be exposed to that parent’s continuing anger and sadness.
TYPES of Alienating Parents:
The Naïve Alienator
Naïve alienators are parents who are passive about the children's relationship with the other parent. They will occasionally do or say things to contribute to alienation. Naive alienators can respond well to education about the negative impacts of their behaviour.
The Active Alienator
Active alienators are aware of their behaviour and intentionally alienate their children from the other parent out of hurt and anger. Active alienators have some insight and will express remorse for their behaviour after they are aware of the damage it has caused.
The Vengeful Alienator
Vengeful alienators believe the targeted parent has to pay for the end of their relationship. Because of this they make it their mission to destroy the targeted parent. Like obsessed alienators, the vengeful alienators have no self-control or insight into their behaviour. They typically present with narcissistic and borderline personality traits. When their relationship ends with the targeted parent, for whatever reason, the vengeful alienator experiences an abnormal grief reaction called narcissistic injury. They will intensely feel the loss and embarrassment of the loss. They will externalise the cause of their pain and will want the targeted parent to suffer for their pain.
The Obsessive Alienator
Obsessed alienators make destroying the targeted parent part of their identity. The obsessed alienator typically has little self-control and insight into their behaviour. They may present with problematic personality traits such as narcissistic and borderline traits.
The Alienating Parent
Problematic personality traits:
- narcissistic personality traits
- borderline personality traits
- paranoid personality traits
- histrionic personality traits
Other factors:
- Cognitive distortions
- Externalising unwanted emotions and responsibilities
- Unable to accept own problems
- Abnormal grieving response
- Problematic family of origin
- Poor relationship history
- Desire for control
- Desire for vengeance
For more information about B Cluster personality disorders visit Project Air for Fact Sheets.
Alienation Processes
- Adultification
- Parentification
- Infantilisation and learned helplessness
- Learning
- Programming/brainwashing
Tactics & Behaviours
This link is to a detailed list of tactics is quoted directly from:
Haines, J., Matthewson, M., & Turnbull, M. (2020). Understanding and Managing Parental Alienation: A Guide to Assessment and Intervention. Routledge.
List of Detection Factors of Brainwashed Children
- Contradictory Statements
- Inappropriate and Unnecessary Information
- Character Assault
- Collusion or One-Sided Alliance
- Child Becomes Spy or Conduit of Information
- Use of Indirect Statements
- Restrictions on Permission to Love or Be Loved
- Unchildlike Statements
- Good Parent versus Bad Parent
- Comparative Martyr Role
- Fear of Contact with the Other Parent
- Anxiety Arousal
- Cohort in Secret-Keeping
- Child Appears as Mirror-Image of Programmer
- Confusion of a Birth Parent’s Importance
- Manifestation of Guilt
- Scripted Views
- Unmanageability for No Apparent Reason
- Radical Changes and Dysfunctional Behavior Manifested in Other Spheres
- Nonverbal Messages
- Coaching Behavior
- Brain Twirling
- Child Threatens Parent
- Child as Parent’s Best Friend
- Physical Survival
Reference: Stanley Clawar and Brynne Rivlin (2013) Children Held Hostage: Identifying Brainwashed Children, Presenting a Case, and Crafting Solutions. ABA Publishing.
Impact of Parental Alienation
The impact of parental alienation can last for years or even a life time. It denies children a normal childhood free from parental conflict and denies them a relationship with both parents. It can also prevent a child from having a relationship with the alienated parent’s family.
Consequences for Alienated Children
Alienated children display unjustified contempt for the alienated parent and an attitude of entitlement toward the alienated parent. They are taught to have a perception of an “all-wonderful” alienating parent and “all-bad” targeted parent. As a result of this alienated children experience disrupted social-emotional development as a consequence of parental alienation.
Alienated children experience a complex grief for the loss of a parent who is still alive. Because this loss is the result of emotional manipulation, alienated children experience psychological difficulties associated with this type of trauma and abuse. Parental alienation causes emotional pain for children. The long-term outcomes of parental alienation on children include: social isolation, fragile sense of self, anger, depression and anxiety.
Consequences for Alienated Parents
The loss of a child is devastating. Alienated parents experience ambiguous loss* for the loss of their child who is still alive. This loss is compounded by being denigrated and vilified as part of the alienation process. Alienated parents experience despair, helplessness, frustration, anger and confusion. Many alienated parents experience significant financial and emotional costs associated with trying to find a resolution in a legal system and mental health services that do not understand parental alienation.
Alienated parents are loving mothers and fathers who try to keep their child out of the parental conflict.
* Ambiguous Loss: A result of traumatic loss. It is externally caused. It is a senseless loss. The situation lacks closure. They experience frozen grief/being stuck in limbo. It is an individual journey. (Boss, 1999, 2009)
EMMM considers that the minimum key areas of expertise required of a single expert include:
- Parental alienation dynamics;
- Family Violence and child maltreatment;
- Sexual abuse;
- Attachment theory;
- Personality disorders;
- Anxieties, fears and phobias;
- Family systems;
- Complex trauma;
- Assessment and diagnosis;
- Trauma-informed practice;
- Interviewing Children*; and
- Risk Assessments (risk of harm to self, others and child safety risk);
*It must be determined whether the interviewing, questioning and counselling techniques used with the child were so suggestive that they had the capacity to substantially alter the child's recollections of events and thus compromise the reliability of the child's personal knowledge.
Parental Alienation cases are counterintuitive and can externally look very similar. Identifying and presenting a case to the family court is not a one size fits all.
Children's Rights Litigation
Trauma Caused by Separation of Children from Parents
Trauma Caused by Separation of Children from Parents
DIAGNOSTICS in the ICD-11 & DSM-5
(CAPRD) Child Affected by Parental Relationship Distress
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders [DSM-5]
(CAPRD) Child Affected by Parental Relationship Distress
under "Other conditions that may be a focus of clinical attention."
QE52.0 Caregiver-Child Relationship Problem
International Classification of Diseases for Trauma Caused for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics [ICD-11]
(QE52.0) Caregiver-Child Relationship Problem
under "Problem associated with interpersonal interactions in childhood."