Introduction To Parental Alienation

There is a lot of misinformation out there on the topic of parental alienation...not only concerning what it is but also what to do if you think legitimate alienation is in play. Many of the online definitions are incorrect and confuse alienation with estrangement. Many describe normal child-preference behaviors and incorrectly label them alienation.

Alienation is not the same thing as estrangement. Alienation is not simply when a child likes one parent less than the other. Being behind in the "popularity contest" does not mean the other parent is an alienator. A child acting more like one parent than the other is not a sign of alienation. The list of wrong advice circulating the interwebs goes on and on.

A lot of the trendy advice on how to deal with alienation often makes the situation worse. The trendy sources 1) paint an unrealistic and overbroad horror-story picture of alienation to draw people in and then 2) propose clingy and frantic behaviors for the "target" parent that can actually lead to estrangement. The more people do the clingy and frantic behaviors and drive the kids away, the more they believe alienation is really taking place, and the situation spirals.

In almost every legitimate parental alienation case, the alienating parent has a Cluster B personality disorder...yet this dynamic is rarely addressed and treated. This video focuses in on the Cluster B issue as the foundation of legitimate alienation cases.