Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:
From: Vaderkenniscentrum|SKO <vaderkenniscentrum@gmail.com>
Date: 14 March 2011 04:19:02 GMT
To: Familyrights 4 Europe Yahoo <fr4e@yahoogroups.com>, Equality-4-Fathers-International <Equality-4-Fathers-International@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [E4F_International nr.11789] Model concerned parent letter on PAS in the DSM written by mother Monika Logan to Daniel Pine, chairman of the Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence Work Group of the DSM
Reply-To: equality-4-fathers-international@googlegroups.com
Model letter on PAS in the DSM written by parent Monika Littau Logan to Daniel Pine, M.D., chairman of the Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence Work Group of the DSM
-------------------
Parent's Perspective : Proposal that Parental Alienation Disorder be included in the DSM-V. The Extreme End of the Continuum by Monika Logan, LBSW
To: Daniel Pine, M.D.; Chairman of the Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence Work Group, for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition;
National Institute of Mental Health
I have serious concerns regarding the lack of treatment and acknowledgement of Parental Alienation Disorder (PAD). As a parent, I sought counseling for my children after a vitriolic divorce. To my dismay, when I reported the cluster of symptoms, I discovered that counselors could not help. Later, I realized that the symptoms are Gardner's criteria for Parental Alienation Syndrome. In continuing my search, which lasted from 1995 to 2007, my children were constantly and perpetually diagnosed with adjustment disorder. I am also a helping professional and am alarmed at the lack of treatment options. PAS is clearly emotional abuse.
There are apprehensions that categorizing PAD as a mental disorder of a child pathologizes a child's reaction to a bitter divorce. Obviously, it is ideal that parents would not attempt to alienate their child from his or her other parent. The fact is some parents do and will continue to do so. It is also commonsensical that the parent participating in the alienation needs intervention. Yet, this is not practical. Intervention will remain only educational at best. Additionally, the intervention is effective if the parent that is participating realizes and cares that he or she has a problem. I am a trained facilitator for a divorce education program, titled, Children in the Middle, created by the Center for Divorce Education. Courts can continue to order parenting classes, but they cannot enforce that the parent stop badmouthing out of the court room setting. What is possible is that therapists can work with children that are aligned with one parent and work with children who unjustly and continually reject the other parent.
I agree with Bernet's (2008) suggested criteria. As a parent, the disturbance lasted more than two months post divorce. The disturbance, as in many cases, lasted not in months but for years. Some groups propose that awarding joint custody would abolish PAS. Yet, courts today frequently award joint custody. Conversely, awarding joint custody still does not eradicate PAD, "While shared parenting seems like a reasonable and laudable goal for most divorcing families, it is based on the premise that parents will cooperate in parenting their children" (Turkat, 2002). Turkat also points out that "many couples file for divorce because they have an extensive history of being unable to get along with each other—to now expect cooperation merely because they have divorced may be too optimistic." Adding PAD to the DSM is the first step for recognition and future treatment options.
Professionals are concerned regarding treatment because the etiology of PAD is debated and deemed unknown. I agree with Warshak (2002) that, "when there is no brainwashing parent there is no PAS." Nevertheless, to my understanding, not all diagnoses listed by the American Psychiatric Association include definitive statements about causes, prognosis, incidence or treatment. According to Gardner, Sauber, and Lorandos (2006), "The professional community ordinarily regards the presentation of a new diagnostic term based on clinical observations as just the beginning of work in the area" (p.556, ¶ 5).
There are educational benefits to understanding family dynamics as it relates to PAS. However, it is futile to point out that children may become alienated from their parents for reasons other than PAS, such as physical or sexual abuse. It is common knowledge that children whose parents have abused them will reject the parent that abused them, and as consequence, alienation many occur. However, in PAS, physical, verbal, and sexual abuses are absent. In in the case of PAS the child's rejection of his or her parent is not justified. The parent is hated without good cause. I acknowledge that PAS is often associated with negative connotations. Some have used it in court as so-called proof when the parent was actually abusive. Unquestionably, PAS has been exploited by the media, extremist groups, and in the court room. Consequently, PAS has been re-named and reformulated. Kelly and Johnston (2001) provide a reformulation. The continuum concept is that divorcing couples that are at the amicable end of the continuum has a child that shows equal preference for both parents. However, I suspect that most parents writing this committee do not fall into this polarized end of the continuum. Clearly, this end of the continuum is ideal but parents requesting inclusion and seeking therapeutic intervention are not working with an ex-spouse that desires cordial co-parenting. They may instead, be faced with a child that has suddenly turned against them. A child that shows equal preference for both parents does not reflect dysfunction. Kelly & Johnston (2001) pathological alienation is equivalent to Gardner's, PAS.
Obviously, children will show affinity towards one parent. They may do so at different developmental stages or other reasons, such as common interest and will prefer one parent over another. This is normal. However, out right rejection of a parent for frivolous reasons is not. I and many others that are writing the committee are referring to the polarized end, not amicable post divorce relations .Without a doubt realistic estrangement occurs, but the point is it is realistic. A child who rejects his or her parent and does so do to actual abuse has good reason for the rejection. Sure, there are multiple causes for a child to reject contact with a parent; many reasons that are logical reasons. As a caveat, there are also reasons, such as PAS when a child rejects a good loving parent that does not warrant the rejection. A child who rejects his or her parent because of abuse and neglect does belong in requests for inclusion or discussion of PAS. Currently, the DSM-IV-TR recognizes abuse and neglect, which are realistic reasons for alienation, but it does not recognize irrational alienation.
I acknowledge the misuse of PAS. Yet, without a doubt, it is similar to other DSM-IV-TR categories: it has a set of symptoms. The symptoms of PAS should no longer be ignored. I propose that terms such as alienated child are vague; PAD is specific. One study by Gordon, Stoffey and Bottinelli (2008), had results of their study showing strong support for Gardner's definition of PAS. Please help children and families by inclusion. Inclusion would allow clinician's treatment options and provide additional research. "This proposal should not be rejected simply because there is no consensus among mental health professionals as to the pathogenesis of PAD. The history of psychology and psychiatry is full of disagreement over causation" (Bernet, 2008). This is true for most disorders unless they are organic. I also work with individuals living with autism. Not all psychologists agree on the cause or if there is a cause. However, if one is diagnosed with autism, there are treatment options. Sadly, a loving parent that desires optimal mental health for his her child, post divorce will not be offered help. They will call therapist after therapist only to be told that PAS is not real, it is a hypothesis, and PAS does not exist because it is not in the DSM. "Denial of PAS has caused significant psychological suffering to many men, many women, and many children. And its denial has only added to the burden of families in which this disorder has been present" (Gardner, 2002).
References
· Bernet, W. (2008). Parental Alienation Disorder and DSM-V. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 36:349-366.
· Bottinelli, J., Gordon, R., J. & Stoffey, R. (2008). MMPI-2 Findings of Primitive Defenses in Alienating Parents. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 36:211-228.
· Gardner, R., Lorandos, D., & Sauber, R. (2006). The International Handbook of Parental Alienation Syndrome, conceptual, clinical and legal considerations. American Series in Behavioral Science and Law. Thomas Books: United States.
· Kelly, J.B., & Johnston, J.R. (2001). The alienated child: A reformulation of parental alienation syndrome. Family court Review, 39(3), 249-265.
· Turkat, I. (2002). Shared Parenting Dysfunction. Journal of Family Therapy, 30: 385-393.
· Warshak, R.A. (2002). Divorce Poison: Protecting the parent-child bond from a vindictive ex. New York: Regan Books.
"At the extreme end of the continuum are children who are fully alienated from a parent after separation and divorce, who express their rejection of that parent stridently, without apparent ambivalence or guilt and strongly resist or completely refuse any contact with that rejected parent. For the most part, these rejected parents fall within the broad range of marginal to good enough to sometimes better parents, who do not have a history of physical or emotional abuse of the child. Although there many be some kernel of truth to the child's complains and allegations about the rejected parent, the child's grossly negative views and feelings are significantly distorted and exaggerated reactions. Thus, this unusual development is a pathological response. It is a severe distortion on the child's parent of the previous parent-child relationship. These youngsters go far beyond an alignment in the intensity, breadth, and ferocity of their behaviors toward the parent they are rejecting." ( Johnston, 2001)----
Drs. Peter Tromp
voorzitter
Vaderkenniscentrum|SKO
Jacob Cabeliaustraat 17
3554 VH Utrecht
t. 030.2383636
e. vaderkenniscentrum@gmail.com
i. www.vaderkenniscentrum.nl
i. www.vaderdagtrofee.nl
---
Symposium Vaderschap en uitreiking Vaderdagtrofee m/v 2011:
Op vrijdag 17 juni 2011 zal op het jaarlijkse Symposium Vaderschap van Vaderkenniscentrum.nl in samenwerking met de Universiteit van Amsterdam en IkVader weer de winnaar van de Vaderdagtrofee m/v 2011 bekend worden gemaakt. In 2010 werd de trofee gezamenlijk gewonnen door Orville Breeveld en Glenn Helberg voor hun initiatieven voor Surinaamse en Antilliaanse vaders (Vitamine Vader, Voorstel Vaderschapswet). Symposium en uitreiking waren een groot succes. Zie verder ook http://www.vaderdagtrofee.nl.
Meer inlichtingen over de Vaderdagtrofee m/v en het Symposium Vaderschap bij Peter Tromp (t. 030.2383636, Email).
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Equality 4 Fathers International" group.
To post to this group, send email to Equality-4-Fathers-International@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to Equality-4-Fathers-International-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Equality-4-Fathers-International
No comments:
Post a Comment