Palm Beach County Divorce And Family Law Blog

Family law attorneys in West Palm Beach and in other sections of Palm Beach County recognize that hostilities may seriously harm children in highly contentious divorce cases. In such cases, parents sometimes can attempt to alienate their children from the other parent. Sometimes the manipulation of their child is blatant (concealing phone calls, gifts, or letters, then the parent uses the lack of contact as proof that the other parent doesn't love the child). At other times, the alienation is more subtle as in "I'm sure nothing bad will happen to you at Mommy's House" or "I've put a cell phone in your suitcase. Call when everyone's asleep to tell me that you're OK.".

Over time, such behavior may cause a child to evolve from one who is strongly bonded in a loving relationship with the targeted parent to a child (who rejects the targeted parent as someone who is bad and/or dangerous. These children come to doggedly resist contact with the alienated parent , sometimes permanently, out of an irrational hate or fear.

Parental Alienation results in harm to the alienated children. William Bernet, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, is leading an effort to add "parental alienation " to the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), The American Psychiatric Association's authoritative book of diagnoses. Inclusion of parental alienation in the DSM could result in insurance coverage for affected families, stimulate more systematic research, and raise the odds that children would get needed treatment in a much more timely fashion.

If you are involved in a case of Parental alienation, you know that you need all the assistance that you can find. Despite the potential benefits of the inclusion of parental alienation in the DSM, Dr. Bernet's proposal is receiving opposition. To learn more about this issue, please read the article at this link.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 11:03 am and is filed under Divorce. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.