This essay is going to explore and compare two cases of parental alienation. Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) is defined as “programming ("brainwashing") of the child by one parent to denigrate the other” (http://richardagardner.com/ar22). PAS is often regarded as emotional child abuse by psychologists, but when successful, punishing the alienating parent can also affect the child. In the case A.M. v. C.H., a complete reversal of custody and suspension of contact with the alienating parent is awarded while, in Kudrocova v. Kronberger, the judge realized that the family’s lack of “willingness to engage in further therapy” (https://coadecisions.ontariocourts.ca/coa/coa/en/item/21140/index.do) made reconciliation an unlikely outcome, therefore, resulting in no change of custody. While both A.M. v. C.H. and …show more content…
Kronberger are cases regarding the realm of child custody and parental alienation, where they stray apart is; the critical background information and arguments used, considering the child’s opinion in the situation, and the outcome of the judges’ solutions.
Firstly, what is PAS and where did it come from? Parental Alienation Syndrome was discovered in 1985 by Richard Gardner, an American child psychologist. PAS is generally seen surrounding child custody cases in which a parent convinces or “poisons” their child into disliking the other parent. When Gardner first proposed the idea of this syndrome, many psychiatrists rejected the idea and argued that it did not fit the definition of a syndrome.¹ For this reason, the American Psychiatric Association did not include Parental Alienation Syndrome in their list of mental disorders (https://www.canlii.org/en/commentary/doc/2016CanLIIDocs4594#!fragment/zoupio-_Toc3Page5/BQCwhgziBcwMYgK4DsDWszIQewE4BUBTADwBdoAvbRABwEtsBaAfX2zgGYAFMAc0ICsASgA0ybKUIQAiokK4AntADkykREJhcCWfKWr1m7SADKeUgCElAJQCiAGVsA1AIIA5AMK2RpMACNoUnYhISA). This lack of acceptance made it difficult for people to use this in courts