Parental Alienation is Real

by Mark Godbey
March 6, 2009

Why do some parents falsely accuse other of hurting their own children? And why is this abuse systemic in Family Court and Juvenile proceedings? As a fit parent, I know to call the police to investigate crimes against my child, but why do other only report these crimes to psychologists or Child Protective Services (CPS)?

Many reasons exists for a mom/dad to accuse the other parent of child abuse during divorce. Anger, hate, and rage over the divorce. And the most effective way to destroy a child's relationship with the other parent is to accuse the parent of a crime against the child or a crime against the parent.

In some municipalities, this initiates a long CPS investigation, in which the accused parent is stripped of his/her procedure due process rights, and the child is taken away, sometime for months or even years.

One of the more common causes of false allegations lie in a Borderline Personality Disorder (PD), or any other kind of PD in which therapy never corrects or alleviates. In many of these cases, the false accuser desperately attempts to alienate the child further, in what has been described as the Parental Alienation Syndrome, first proposed by Dr. Richard Gardner.

Parental Alienation is "is a disorder that arises primarily in the context of child-custody disputes. Its primary manifestation is the child's campaign of denigration against a parent, a campaign that has no justification. It results from the combination of a programming (brainwashing) parent's indoctrinations and the child's own contributions to the vilification of the target parent." to quote Dr. Gardner.

In the vast majority of cases, the allegations are unfounded, and as a result, criminal charges are never brought against the alleged perpetrator. But even more disturbing is the lack of criminal charges against the parent who makes the false allegation.

Many times, these false accusers are placed on supervised visitation and they rage against the world since in their mind (only) what they believe is true. They ally themselves with family and friends and other groups of similarly disturbed mentalities, to attack the world.

Ofttimes, the attacker focuses against the psychiatric evaluator, or Child Protective Services, for not taking their side and protecting the child. A close examination of the psychiatric testing reveals some disturbing personality disorders about the false accuser that makes him (or more likely her) , a real danger to the child.

What can be done to protect parents and children? A parental rights amendment, of course. This would give both parents and the children the right to a jury trial. In cases of allegations of abuse, the children would be treated like "real" witnesses and protected by law enforcement from further contamination by the accuser. The accused would have the right to bring in expert forensic witness to validate the claims of child or disprove them, and the extent of indoctrination or brainwashing by the other parent.