PAS or not PAS?

In an article entitled Parental Alienation Syndrome: the Debate, in the New Law Journal of 8 November, District Judge John Mitchell asked what is PAS and does it add anything to the court’s approach in contact disputes? PAS was first defined by Richard Gardner, a child psychiatrist in the US as: ‘A childhood disorder that arises almost exclusively 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 programming (brain-washing), parent’s indoctrinations, and the child’s own contributions to the vilification of the target parent. When true parental abuse and/or neglect is present, the child’s animosity may be justified and so the parental alienation syndrome explanation for the child’s hostility is not applicable.’ On the other hand, the President of the Family Division in Re A, V, M, H (Contact: Domestic Violence) [2002] 2 FLR 334 said: ‘There is, of course, no doubt that some parents, particularly mothers, are responsible for alienating their children from their fathers without good reason and thereby creating this sometimes insoluble problem. That unhappy state of affairs, well known in the family courts, is a long way from a recognised syndrome requiring mental health professionals to play an expert role.’ After considering the arguments and the authorities, the author concluded: ‘Given the present opposition to the concept of PAS amongst some health professionals, any party seeking to adduce evidence about PAS may have to show that the assistance it will provide in the circumstances of a particular case will outweigh the disadvantages to the child of a court battle about theories.’