StrollerDerby
By Heather Turgeon
July 30, 2010

The diagnosis of Parental Alienation Disorder is being considered for inclusion in the upcoming edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Advocacy groups and clinicians are pushing for it to go through – saying that it’s a real condition that affects a huge number of children.

The clinical picture: a divorced family in which the child is brainwashed by one parent to believe that the other parent is the bad guy (without good reason). In mild form it means withholding or interfering with visits to the other parent, not being able to tolerate being in the same room, or making subtle negative comments that influence the kid’s feelings about his mom or dad.  The severe form?

One of the speakers at an upcoming conference of the Canadian Symposium for Parental Alienation Syndrome, Pamela Richardson, describes her own experience losing her four-year-old son after going through a divorce. Richardson says, in her book A Kidnapped Mind, that her husband emotionally abused their son – teaching him slowly but surely to hate his mother and eventually cut off communication.

Read entire article here:  http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderby/2010/07/30/new-diagnosis-could-impact-family-divorce/