Parental Alienation Not A Mental Disorder, American Psychiatric Association Says

Submitted by Mastodon on Mon, 2012-09-24 19:42

Article here. Excerpt:

'NEW YORK -- Rebuffing an intensive lobbying campaign, a task force of the American Psychiatric Association has decided not to list the disputed concept of parental alienation in the updated edition of its catalog of mental disorders.

The term conveys how a child's relationship with one estranged parent can be poisoned by the other parent, and there's broad agreement that it sometimes occurs in the context of divorces and child-custody disputes.
...
"The bottom line – it is not a disorder within one individual," said Dr. Darrel Regier, vice chair of the task force drafting the manual. "It's a relationship problem – parent-child or parent-parent. Relationship problems per se are not mental disorders."
...
Among those on the other side of the debate, which has flared since the 1980s, are feminists and advocates for battered women who consider "parental alienation syndrome" to be an unproven and potentially dangerous concept useful to men trying to deflect attention from their abusive behavior.'

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"The bottom line – it is not a disorder within one individual," said Dr. Darrel Regier, vice chair of the task force drafting the manual. "It's a relationship problem – parent-child or parent-parent. Relationship problems per se are not mental disorders."

I have to agree with this. Our energies could be better deployed elsewhere than focusing on getting this definition officially accepted as a "syndrome."

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Submitted by TCM on Tue, 2012-09-25 13:59

There is an individual named fixt100 that posted the bellow comment which I believe to be very relevant:

isnt this just a form of stockholm syndrome? ,,,im not saying the parent is abusing the child physically , but isnt keeping the child away from a loving parent abuse?

wickipedia
"Stockholm syndrome, or capture-bonding, is a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and have positive feelings towards their captors, sometimes to the point of defending them."
and when going thru a divorce where the parent is at the point where they would do this,, they arnt going to be talking about peaches and rainbows when they are talking to their ex or about their ex to the kids, so it follows the children would pick up on this and it would have the same affect??

stockholm affects 27% of captives (Wikipedia)

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Submitted by Kratch on Tue, 2012-09-25 15:41

this is me but im no psychologist or anything but it seems very clear to me regardless that that is what this is and rather than being captive for weeks(a guess) the children can be captives for years/decades so im sure that the rate of 27% would go up alot in that time??

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Submitted by Rog on Tue, 2012-09-25 19:23

It may not be a mental disorder but it definitely is bullying by an adult who should know better.

Without question it is also child abuse.

We need to keep emphasizing these terms. Long, loud and often.

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Submitted by chuck on Tue, 2012-09-25 20:41

Feminists believe fathers who wan't custody of their children are deflecting from their abusive behavior? Its time to call them out for what they are -- Father-phobic!

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Submitted by Mastodon on Tue, 2012-09-25 21:21

The APA should recognize parental alienation as part of a broader, feminist borne disorder known as Witch-Hunting Males, or they should just admit that much of their gender biased "research" is really just politicized advocacy research. :-/

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Submitted by MR on Tue, 2012-09-25 23:51