The three crimes of PAS

Jeff Opperman and David Israel have written a book about Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS). The book is not yet available, but you can read the introduction and chapter synopses on their web site.

From the introduction:

PAS involves three crimes against the child:


The first crime is that the alienating parent doesn’t acknowledge that every child is one half of each parent. Every time the alienating parent tells the child how horrible the other parent is, the alienating parent is telling the child that half of him (or her) is horrible.

The second crime is that the alienating parent teaches the child that cutting off contact with people is an acceptable way to handle anger, hurt and disappointment. The world is full of people. One day the child will be an adult. The child will grow up without the appropriate coping skills to have normal, healthy relationships with other adults.

The third crime is that one-day the child will look back on the alienating parent’s behavior from an adult perspective. He or she will then realize that the alienating parent robbed the child of something very precious – the love and attention of the other parent. The child turned adult will realize that the trust placed in the alienating parent was misplaced. He or she will feel betrayed. At that point the adult will not just have one damaged relationship with a parent, but damaged relationships with both parents.


Technorati tags: Parental Alienation Syndrome, Parental Alienation, Child Abuse, Divorce, Malicious Mother.