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Richard Gardner first coined the term, Parental Alienation Syndrome in 1985, and later expanded his ideas in his earlier book (1992) The Parental Alienation Syndrome, A Guide for Mental Health and Legal Professionals. This present volume is Dr Gardner's attempt to provide a series of guidelines for mental health professionals in working with families when they discover this condition to be present. In his introductory warning, he states
that this is not a book for parents. Parents are generally not objective enough to make a proper PAS diagnosis, especially in situations in which the abuse element may be operative and even the primary problem.
The volume addresses both Gardner's theoretical justification of his definition of this syndrome, but is also a rich source of clinical material drawn from his extensive background over years of working with families and children involved in divorce. In his theoretical section he defines
The Parental Alienation syndrome as a disorder that arises primarily in the context of child-custody disputes. Its primary manifestation is the child's campaign of denigration against a parent, a campaign that has no justification. It results from the combination of a programming (brainwashing) parent's indoctrination and the child's own contribution to the vilification of the target parent. When true parental abuse and/or neglect is present, the child's animosity may be justified, and the parental-alienation-syndrome explanation for the child's hostility is not applicable.
It is Gardner's underlying premise that this is a necessary and acceptable diagnostic category that is most controversial. With divorce rates approaching