Stopping Parental Alienation Syndrome

Stopping Parental Alienation Syndrome

William Frye Jr.

English 147

January 18, 2016

Chris Miller

Stopping Parental Alienation Syndrome

Divorce and Child Custody is a battle or war, and it can be an extremely emotional time for everyone involved, especially children.

With the way that the Judicial system has made divorce, it has become a battle, and parents feel that there are a winner and loser during these trials. These parents will stop at nothing to be on the winning side of the case, and this causes them to use the children as pawns to get an advantage over the other party involved. Claiming that the other parent is physically abusive or a drug/alcohol abuser to gain control of the child until it goes in front of the judge, is one of many dirty tricks that can be played to alienate the other parent.

As Attorney Kendra R. Jolivet (2012) stated "parental alienation is the creation of one relationship between a child and one parent, to the exclusion of the other parent" (p 178). She later explains that there are three main reasons for alienating the other parent: "to meet personal emotional needs, as a vehicle to express his or her intense emotions, or as a pawn to inflict harm on the other parent" (Jolivet 2012). With the many reasons for the divorce or custody dispute, it is highly imperative for the parents to get along for the sole purpose of what is best for the children.

“There are three categories of parental alienation, mild, moderate, and severe” (Jolivet 2012). Mild alienation is where the alienating parent fails to encourage visitation and communication with the targeted parent. An example can be neglecting phone calls from the other parent and refusing the child to contact the targeted parent. Moderate alienation happens when the child is not able to talk about anything positive about visits with the targeted parent. Causing the child to feel as if they may have to live multiple lives, and causing antisocial behavior, depression, and low self-esteem. Severe alienation occurs when the child has taken on the alienating parent's hatred, emotions, and does not have any positive feeling for the targeted parent. The most severe because the child no longer wants any contact with the targeted parent because of the brainwashing that the alienating parent has done to the child. The hardest for the targeted parent to have any relationship with the child, and in most cases finally give up on having anything