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I’ve written a fair amount on parental alienation and parental alienation syndrome (PAS) or parental alienation disorder (PAD). I’ve said before that I’m in no way qualified to give an opinion about whether the behavioral changes displayed by an alienated child fit the American Psychiatric Association’s definition of a discrete syndrome or disorder. But what I do know is that certain parents attempt to alienate children from the other parent and that that effort can result in personality changes in the child. Now here’s an excellent overview of the matter that lay people like me can understand (The Colorado Lawyer,...

Few family law cases are as heartbreaking as those involving Parental Alienation, where one parent has turned his or her children against the other parent, destroying the loving bonds the children and the target parent once enjoyed. Many of my readers have experienced it in various forms and to varying degrees. Feminist groups, including the National Organization for Women, contend that Parental Alienation is a myth and a ruse used by abusive fathers to win control of their children in custody cases. To pick one example of many, Helen Grieco, until recently the Executive Director of California NOW, calls Parental...

Parental Alienation Awareness Day - April 25, 2008 Did You Know That Parental Alienation Is a Form of Child Abuse? MIAMI, April 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Parental Alienation Awareness Day will occur on April 25, 2008. Parental Alienation (PA) is a form of child abuse that involves the systematic persuasion and manipulation of children both overtly, and with subtle behaviors that results in the destruction of a loving relationship they once shared with a parent. The child can suffer "collateral" damage through simple exposure to the conflict or if used as a weapon against the other parent. PA is a case...

An article about Charlie Sheen's divorce, which I'll follow with a few comments: End daughters' overnights with Sheen, ex asksLOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Denise Richards has asked a court to stop allowing ex-husband Charlie Sheen to have overnight stays with their two young daughters. Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards married in 2003. The couple divorced last year. In a filing Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Richards said the children have resisted spending the night at Sheen's home and "often returned sad and upset," according to court papers obtained by syndicated TV show "Access Hollywood." The 36-year-old actress...

My new co-authored column, "In this Turf War, Kids Are the Prize" (Tallahassee Democrat, 6/13/07), defends the concept of Parental Alienation against recent attacks from the National Organization for Women, the Family Violence Prevention Fund, and numerous other misguided women's groups. The column, which appears below, was written primarily as a response to NOW president Kim Gandy's recent anti-father editorial, "Sick Joke or Sick Reality"? To write a Letter to the Editor of the Tallahassee Democrat regarding the column, write to letters@tallahassee.com. In this Turf War, Kids Are the Prize By Jeffery M. Leving and Glenn Sacks Tallahassee Democrat, 6/13/07...

I've often criticized what one might call the "paternal abandonment script"--the standard assumption that if a father doesn't remain in his children's lives after a divorce or separation, it's because he "abandoned the family" and/or chose to remove himself from his children's lives. This script is pushed heavily by both the left and the right, including: feminists; influential fatherhood expert David Blankenhorn of the Institute for American Values; presidential candidate Barack Obama; former Vice-President Dan Quayle (and his famous 1992 Murphy Brown speech decrying fatherlessness); and countless others. I've detailed in numerous newspaper columns the many barriers mothers and the...

Alec Baldwin’s angry, over-the-top voice-mail tirade at his daughter, Ireland, was clearly wrong. Unfortunately, while we’ve been wringing our hands over how bad Baldwin is, we’re ignoring the case’s central truth – Kim Basinger’s well-documented parental alienation campaign against Baldwin. Parental alienation often arises after a divorce, as one angry, vengeful parent tries to turn the children against the other parent, destroying the loving bonds the children and the target parent once enjoyed. Baldwin claims that his outburst occurred in the context of Basinger alienating Ireland and trying to drive him out of his daughter’s life. This claim appears to...

WOLFEBORO — On Jan. 8 most of the students who attend Crescent Lake School participated in a survey conducted by Dartmouth Medical School about movies and their effect on children’s health and behavior. By Jan. 13 Governor Wentworth Superintendent Jack Robertson and School Board Chair Charlene Seibel were traveling to Dartmouth to oversee the shredding of the completed surveys. That action came as a result of parental concern. The process to bring the survey to Crescent Lake began in April 2002 when the district was invited to participate. Around that time, the school board had made a commitment to address...