Parental Alienation Syndrome (SAP) was first proposed by Richard Gardner in 1985 and describes a disorder that occurs primarily in the context of legal disputes over child custody.
The first manifestation of parental alienation syndrome is the attempt to defame one parent towards children, an action that has no justification, children hardly assume that the people who love them, who care for them and those who also love them, can be bad.
- Thus.
- The central symptom of this syndrome is the appearance of more or less intense signs of rejection by children towards one of the parents after a conflicting marital rupture.
- When SAP comes into contact with the legal system.
- It becomes a legality.
- Family syndrome.
- And responsibility lies with judges and lawyers.
“The father is trying to get his brainwashed to turn the child against the other parent. -Pablo Nieva, Spanish Association of Neuropsychiatry
In parental alienation syndrome, the bad father?Is he hated and verbally defamed, while he? Good father?He is loved and idealized. According to this author, this is the result of a combination of indoctritions of a “programmer” and the child’s own contributions to defame the “target” parent.
No scientific organization, such as WHO or the American Psychiatric Association, recognizes parental alienation syndrome. Some countries recommend not accepting parental alienation syndrome as an argument in a sentence, although judges have the final say.
Have different reasons been described to explain why the father?Alienator? You can try to keep your children away from the other parent, the main ones are: inability to accept the end of the relationship, attempts to maintain the relationship through conflict, desires for revenge, avoidance of pain, self-protection, guilt, fear of losing children or losing the role of primary parent, desire for exclusive control in terms of power and ownership of children.
“Parental alienation syndrome can occur when a parent does not accept the end of the relationship or wants to make financial benefits after divorce.
This parent may be jealous of each other or attempt to take advantage of decisions about separation of property or the collection of a pension. With regard to individual pathology, it is also necessary to consider the hypothesis of a personal history of abandonment, alienation, or sexual abuse or loss of identity (Gardner, 1998b; Dunne and Hedrick, 1994; Walsh and Bone, 1997; Vestal, 1999).
Gardner (1998b) describes a number of “primary symptoms” that usually occur in children with parental alienation syndrome:
“No child should be treated like a traitor simply because he loves both parents. “
In addition to those described by Gardner, other authors have suggested the following indicators (Waldron and Joanis, 1996):
A very common thing in these children is the feeling of fear, so symptoms such as:
However, fear is not felt only by children, the alienating relative’s family usually supports him, reinforcing his belief that he is in possession of the truth.
The techniques for achieving alienation can be very different and cover a wide range of strategies ranging from the most “cheeky”. even the most “subliminal. ” So can the father simply deny the existence of the other parent or characterize the child as fragile and in need of their continued protection, generating close loyalty between them.
You can also categorize normal differences between parents in terms of good/bad or right/wrong, turn small behaviors into generalizations and negative characteristics, or place the child in the middle of conflict.
Another strategy is to compare good and bad experiences, question each other’s character or lifestyle, tell the child “the truth about the facts of the past,” earn the child’s sympathy, play the victim, fear, anxiety, guilt, intimidation, or threats to the child. In addition, it can also exhibit an extremely condescending or permissive attitude (Waldron and Joanis, 1996).
Bowen, M. (1989). Family therapy in clinical practice. Bilbao: DDB (Original Edition 1978).
Bolauos, I. (2000). Descriptive study of parental alienation syndrome. Design and implementation of a pilot family mediation program. PhD, unreleased thesis. Universitat Aut-noma de Barcelona.
Suares, M. (1996). Mediation Conflict management, communication and technology. Barcelona: Paidas.