Parental alienation was developed by Richard Gardner – True

Center, n.d., line 1-2). Gardner himself acknowledged that · many evaluators use “parental alienation” in court to avoid

The Parent Alienation Syndrome (PAS) was proposed by Richard Gardner in 1987 to account for the apparently burgeoning incidence of sexual abuse allegations in custody disputes in the U.S. family courts. The PAS concept was developed in the context of emerging concerns about false or distorted ...

Johnston, J. R., & Kelly, J. B. (2004). Rejoinder to Gardner’s “Commentary on Kelly and · Johnston’s ‘The alienated child: A reformulation of parental alienation syndrome’”. Family

Richard A. Gardner, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who developed a theory about parental alienation syndrome, which he said could lead children in high-conflict custody cases to falsely accuse a parent of abuse, died on May 25 at his home ...

See Richard A. Gardner, Recommendations for Dealing with Parents · Who Induce a Parental Alienation Syndrome in Their Children, 28 J.

Richard Gardner's PAS theory lacks empirical support and is widely discredited by psychological professionals. Courts frequently favor paternal involvement despite evidence of abuse, influenced by societal biases.

It has also been debunked by the World Health Organization and the European Association for Psychotherapy, who warn of the risk of using such junk pseudo-science “allowing for violence against children and their mothers to remain undetected, ...

Further, he has been accused of devising his alienation theory "not based on any research but on his personal beliefs and biases, with an interest in providing a weapon for lawyers seeking to undermine a mother's credibility in court." He is said to have estimated deliberate false reporting among mothers at 90%, which experts have disputed, citing research commissioned by the United States Department of Justice that found an actual rate less than 2%. Gardner's observation of a "parental ...

Controversial since its inception, PAS has compelled many scholars to write articles critical of Gardner's theory. Kelly and Johnston have been noteworthy critics of PAS, writing in their 2001 article, “The Alienated Child, A Reformulation of Parental Alienation Syndrome, ” that “PAS terminology has led to widespread confusion and misunderstanding in judicial, legal, and psychological circles” (Ref.