One of the principle arguments of the misguided mothers’ advocates who seek to discredit Parental Alienation is to say that it has been “debunked” by professionals in the field. This is simply false.
We dealt with this issue at the time of our successful Campaign Against PBS’s Father-Bashing Breaking the Silence in 2005. During the controversy over the film, the film’s feminist supporters insisted that Parental Alienation Syndrome had been discredited and attacked by the American Psychological Association.In the documentary Joan Meier, a professor of clinical law at George Washington University and one of the film’s chief spokespersons, stated that PAS “has been thoroughly debunked by the American Psychological Association.” Connecticut Public Television, one of the film’s producers, put out a press release promoting the film which stated that PAS had been “discredited by the American Psychological Association.”
Rhea K. Farberman, Executive Director of Public and Member Communications of the American Psychological Association, publicly retorted that these feminist claims are “incorrect” and “inaccurate,” and that the APA “does not have an official position on parental alienation syndrome–pro or con.”
Despite the enormous political pressure put on the APA by misguided women’s advocates who oppose PAS, the APA has put out mixed messages about Parental Alienation Syndrome.
During the PBS controversy I asked shared parenting advocate Les Veskrna, MD to write an article for my site sorting out the truth about the APA and PAS. According to Veskrna, “The APA has, in fact, heretofore made a significant endorsement of the validity of PAS.” Read Veskrna’s full piece here.
Recently I asked Dr. Veskrna to revisit the issue he wrote about in 2005. His article is below.
The Revision of DSM: What’s the Status of Parental Alienation Syndrome?
By Les Veskrna, MD
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association (A.P.A.) and better known simply as the “DSM”, specifies uniform criteria for the diagnosis of mental disorders in children and adults. Its primary purpose is to serve as a definitive reference for medical and mental health professionals and researchers in the United States and around the world. Secondarily, because its contents have social and political importance, it is also used by or influences decisions made by government regulatory agencies, pharmaceutical companies, health insurance companies, the court system, and public policy makers among many other entities.
The process of updating the DSM has been of considerable interest to those who believe in the existence of Parental Alienation Syndrome and anticipate its validation in DSM-V. Since Dr. Gardner’s original description of PAS was in 1985, there were too few published studies and articles in the literature to warrant its inclusion in the current DSM-IV edition, which was published in 1994. There is hope that time has now allowed for the proliferation of enough research and clinical experience to support PAS being added to DSM-V.
The concept of PAS has certainly struck a chord of recognition with a burgeoning number of parents, children, attorneys, judges, and mental health providers, and they now have a name for a behavior pattern that they have either personally experienced or encountered professionally. Beyond the conceptualization of this disorder, there also exists an expanding volume of literature from clinicians and researchers other than Dr. Gardner describing PAS cases and their experience in dealing with these cases.
Overall, the progression of the PAS knowledge base appears to be consistent with what one would expect with any newly observed disorder. Is this enough, however, to achieve recognition in DSM-V? Some experts suggest that PAS research is just beginning a higher level of inquiry involving larger samples of subjects, more controlled observations, and greater standardization and reliability of assessment procedures. They believe that until these studies are completed, acceptance by the scientific community – and inclusion in DSM-V – may not yet occur. (more…)
