The New Randi James: How to Apply the Theory of Parental Alienation to a Majority of Parent & Child Relationships

Parental alienation theories continue to be used in the family court systems. The more battered women advocates continue to fight against it, the more it morphs and expands. It is not a matter of who is doing it more often or whether it exists. It is a convenient tool that attempts to explain basic human parental behaviors while making money for the court system, attorneys and Guardians Ad Litem, psychologists, and social workers. These systems and "professionals" can only profit if they have business...customers. Remember this as the fight continues.

Remember also that psychology does not provide proof, nor does it predict. Like science, it changes as more knowledge is gained. Unlike science (though arguable!), it supports popular opinion which waxes and wanes according to what society is focused on at the time. It can also help to guide or shape public opinion--like religion. In that our society is misogynist, racist, and hostile to children, the application of psychology will reflect the same. This should not be surprising.

I invite you to take another look at the research performed by a major proponent of PAS theory. This researcher is a psychologist who does a lot of work in and around New York and New Jersey, including talking to school systems and child welfare organizations (she also works for one). Think about the implications of this.

In summary, upon asking adults of an average age of 40 about their childhood experience involving parental alienation stemming mainly from divorces that occurred at an average age of 5, her research revealed that parental alienation existed in the following situations:

20% intact families (no divorce or custody battle)
45% divorced families with physical, emotional, and/or verbal abuse
50% families with alcohol abuse issues on top of other abuses
75% where the mothers were physically, emotionally, and/or verbally abusive
83% where the fathers were physically, emotionally, and/or verbally abusive

Work as a psychologist is no good unless you carve out a niche somewhere and create a label to a "problem" (or create the problem itself) and then serve as the expert on the matter. Years of watching and using people's children as research material plus thousands of dollars in education must payout somehow.

via randijames.com

There's a lot of anger here, but the whole parental alienation thing is an issue that I'm glad people are addressing. In my opinion it arises in part from the corruption of the justice system, but that arises directly from the corruption of the social system, which is the result of the corruption of the citizens of which that society is made up. We're the ones who are willing to tell our children and the children of our spouses or lovers or one-night-stands that their other parent is a scumbag. Even if we never loved that person they were good enough to make a baby with, at least for a couple minutes, and when the children are adopted or the result of IVF it's even harsher to tell them that the person who helped bring them into our lives is a subpar human. Sometimes it's unequivocally true. When it's not, saying that it is demeans everyone who's truly subject to a monster, and devalues their experience, not to mention the effect on a kid who has to hear it about someone they probably love (or at least who took part in their creation).

I wish there wasn't a need for a blog like this, but I'm glad someone's talkin' about it.

Posted via email from Moments of Awareness