Leading Opponent of Recognizing Parental Alienation Apologizes to Fathers & Families for Defamatory Remarks

Submitted by Matt on Tue, 2010-05-25 02:11

Blog entry here. Excerpt:

'Clinical Psychiatry News board member Dr. Paul J. Fink makes a shockingly irresponsible assertion in his recent column. He writes that family court reform groups seeking to have parental alienation disorder seriously considered for inclusion in the DSM-5 are doing so because they “don’t like to be interfered with when they are sexually abusing their children”…

A group of 50 mental health experts from 10 countries are part of an effort to add Parental Alienation Disorder to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM V), the American Psychiatric Association’s “bible” of diagnoses. This scientific coalition is led by psychiatrist William Bernet, who explains that adding PAD to DSM “would spur insurance coverage, stimulate more systematic research, lend credence to a charge of parental alienation in court, and raise the odds that children would get timely treatment.”
...
In response, Dr. Fink, to his credit, apologized and retracted his defamatory statement in the latest issue of the Clinical Psychiatry News. Dr. Fink wrote:

I apologize for suggesting that all fathers who accuse mothers of PAS are sexually abusing their children. That was clearly an overstatement that I retract. Admittedly, I got carried away when writing the article…I had absolutely no intention of impugning Dr. Bernet, his colleagues, or Fathers & Families in any way. I hope we can all come to an agreement about what constitutes alienation, how to deal with PAS, and how to proceed in court hearings when someone alleges that one or another parent is an alienator or an abuser.

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Comments

when males drink too much feminist koolaid.
what that word? oh yeah, whack!
this guy is considered educated enough to have an opinion that matters?

men trying to get some 'equality under the law',
justice, fairness, and truth as required by the actual
precepts of law, and we get slapped (like a girl)
with "don't like to be interfered with when they are sexually abusing their children"?

and he meant no offense? oh, she meant offense alright, as do I. this type has face time on the tube every single day. Forrest's mother was right.
stupid is ...

fink, i smell funk.

this type thinking is feminist logic at it's darkest.

sometimes it appears that (often) male feminists hate men more than the typical rabid female sort.

we are truly rocking their rice bowl folks. three cheers!

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Submitted by daveinga on Tue, 2010-05-25 03:21

I hope PAS gets added to the DSM.

Anyone that has ever witnessed or experienced it knows that it is real and extremely harmful.

It seems silly to me that this can't get in there but all kinds of ridiculous stuff is in there

Perhaps I am wrong, but isn't sex addiction, oppositional defiant disorder and stuff like that listed in there? (My brother and I were both 'diagnosed' with this when we were younger)

My neighbor is getting her teenage son treated for X-box addiction. I thought she was joking, but she told me that there are therapists that specialize in it. I jokingly (well actually I was serious) asked her if she ever considered just getting rid of the X-box? She told me I knew nothing about addiction, as that is the last thing you should do (silly me).

I don't think X-box addiction is listed in the DSM, but I do believe her insurance is covering the therapy.

It is sad how all these other trivial 'mental health' issues get more respect than Parental Alienation Syndrome.

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Submitted by Kris on Tue, 2010-05-25 18:57

"I apologize for suggesting that all fathers..."

first off it wasn't suggested it was stated. secondly this is some half ass apology to a hatefull statement. He corrects himself by saying not all... wow not all but maybe most?

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Submitted by fondueguy on Wed, 2010-05-26 02:13

He sounds like one of those people who's true colors shined through in the original statement and his half assed apology makes me think he subscribes to statistics on father child sexual abuse that count every dad whose ever cleaned their toddlers bottom up after they had an accident as an unreported case of sexual molestation, and believes every pissed off wife that has ever claimed abuse in divorce proceedings. He's a where there is smoke there must be fire kind of guy when it comes to such issues and those people do WAY more harm to children then the actual sexual abusers because the actual sexual abusers are few and far between while idiots like him harm kids by the thousands every time they open their mouth because they are responsible for all the laws and policies that are in place today that treat all men like child sexual abusers.

One of the biggest hurdles the MRA movement needs to overcome is men like this who are the worst enemy of men.

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Submitted by Paragon on Wed, 2010-05-26 18:17