Parental Alienation
Malicious Parent Syndrome is where the custodial parent, among other things, interferes with the non-custodial parents visitation, manipulates their offspring to hate the other parent.
Diagnostic Criteria for Malicious Parent Syndrome
- A parent unjustifiably punishes his or her divorcing or divorced spouse by:
- Attempting to alienate their mutual child(ren) from the other parent
- Involving others in malicious actions against the other parent
- Engaging in excessive litigation
- The parent specifically attempt to deny the child(ren):
- Regular uninterrupted visitation with the other parent
- Uninhibited telephone access to the other parent
- Participation by the other parent in the child(ren)’s school life and extra-curricular activities
- The pattern is pervasive and includes malicious acts towards the other parent, including:
- Lying to the children
- Lying to others
- Violations of law
- The disorder is not specifically due to another mental disorder, although a separate mental disorder may co-exist.
Reasearch on divorce-related Malicious Parent Syndrome
- Turkat, Ira Daniel Divorce-Related Malicious Parent Syndrome Journal of Family Violence, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1999, p.95-97.
- Turkat, Ira Daniel Relocation as a strategy to interfere with the child-parent relationship American Journal of Family Law, 1997, Vol. 11, p 39-41.
- Turkat, Ira Daniel Management of Visitation interference in divorce Judges’ Journal 36: 17-21.
- Turkat, Ira Daniel Divorce related malicious mother syndrome Journal of Family Violence, Vol. 10, 1995, p.253-264.
- Turkat, Ira Daniel Child visitation interference in divorce Clinical Psychology Review, 1994, Vol 14, p.737-742.
- Gardner, Richard A. The Parental Alienation Syndrome and the Differentiation Between Fabricated and Genuine Child Sex Abuse Creative therapeutics, Creskill, NJ, 1987.