The usual healing properties
of time are lost when it is used as the primary weapon to inflict
injury on the lost parent by alienating the child
Since the designation of PAS is
inappropriate in cases where abuse is real, it has been customary
(and necessary for the good of the child) first to distinguish
between allegations of abuse that are real and those that are
fabricated...However, in the cases of fabricated abuse, a new
and more subtle variety of allegation is beginning to appear.
I have called these virtual allegations. They refer
to those cases in which the abuse is only hinted, its real purpose
being to cast aspersions on the character of the noncustodial
parent in a continuing program of denigration. For the alienator,
virtual allegations avoid the need to fabricate incidents of alleged
abuse with their attendant possibility of detection and probability
of punishment for perjury. For example, in one case, though no
sexual abuse was ever alleged, it was hinted at in the allegation
by the mother that the father had shown the child a rented videotape
containing pornography. Though the videotape was a Hollywood comedy
starring Chevy Chase rented from a family video store and chosen
by the child, the mother asserted in court that the child was
disappointed in the movie because it was suggestive, erotic, and
pornographic. After interviewing the child extensively, the judge
disagreed that the movie was pornographic and said that while
the child was indeed disappointed with the film, it was not because
the film was pornographic but because it wasn't funny. The number
of virtual allegations of abuse may be expected to increase in
the future because of their more subtle nature, the greater difficulty
in disproving them, and because judges and lawyers familiar with
PAS are becoming increasingly skilled at detecting outright fabrications.
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There is another reason why time is so important a weapon in the
hands of the alienator. With the passage of time, the child grows
to be staunch collaborator. A judge who might not listen to a
nine-year-old pleading not to see his or her father, might be
more disposed to listen to an older, "wiser", and more
articulate thirteen-year-old. Spreading out the court proceedings
over time not only aids in the brainwashing and contributes to
the wearing down of the petitioner but ensures for the alienator
a stronger child ally when a final court date is set.
So it is that time is often "bought" through false allegations,
by assertions the child is in danger from contact with the lost
parent, and by requests to the court for delays, continuances,
and postponements. Sometimes even psychological assessment and
psychiatric evaluation are pressed into service as part of the
delaying tactic, then dropped when the sought-after delay has
been achieved. On other occasions psycho-legal expertise is advanced
...with the psychologist cast as the hired gun engaged to put
forth to the court the negative opinion of the contesting parent
under the guise of an "expertise" (Goldwater, 1991,
p. 123).
Johnston, Campbell, and Mayers (1985) reported that one response
of latency children
(6-12 years) to parental conflict was to act in a diffusely disturbed
manner exhibiting anxiety, tension, depression, and psychosomatic
illness. Consideration needs to be given to the question of what
happens in the long run to children who are alienated. Is the
problem self-limiting in that even alienation-caused wounds will
heal as the child reaches adulthood? Unfortunately, alienation
can become so powerful as to trigger other forms of mental and
emotional illness with resultant maladaptive behavior.