Gardner’s concept of PAS is based on his own clinical observations and research, in which he believed that the recent increase of allegations of sexual abuse brought in custody disputes where the result of a child suffering from PAS makes false allegations of abuse created by the alienating parent (usually the mother).
A. The PAS Doctrine Gardner defined PAS as a disorder, in which the child during a custody dispute begins a campaign of denigration against the targeted parent, without justification. The disorder results from “the combination of a programming (brainwashing) parent’s indoctrinations and the child’s own contributions to the vilification of [a] target[ed] parent.” When referring to brainwashing he refers to the active and conscious attempt of the alienating parent “to deliberately bring about the
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6) Absence of guilt over cruelty to and/or exploitation of the alienated parent, in which the child has a “complete absence of guilt regarding the feelings of the lost parent.”
7) Presence of borrowed scenarios, in which the child has “a rehearsed, coached quality to them and often include expressions and phrases of the loved parent.”
8) Spread of the animosity to the friends and/or extended family of the alienated parent.
Gardner argued that where “PAS children are likely to exhibit these symptoms, . . .children who [had] been genuinely abused-neglected are not likely to.” When true parental abuse and/or neglect is present the child’s animosity may be justified, and so the parental alienation syndrome diagnosis is not applicable. In differentiating between bona fide abuse/neglect and the diagnosis of PAS in a child, Gardner suggest that children subjected to abuse are likely to exhibit symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder, while PAS children rarely exhibit any of these