Every adolescent psychiatrist should know about and thoroughly understand the condition of “mental alienation”. A large group of mental health and legal professionals have submitted formal proposals to include parental alienation in DSM-V and ICD-11. ASAP member, William Bernet, M.D., has organized this international effort. Dr. Bernet says “Our definition of parental alienation is: a mental condition to which a child – usually one whose parents are engaged in a high-conflict divorce – allies himself or herself strongly with one parent (the preferred parent) and rejects a relationship with the other parent (the alienated parent) without legitimate justification. There is nothing controversial about this definition. Almost everyone who evaluates, treats, or conducts research on children of divorced parents agrees that parental alienation – as the concept is defined in our proposal – really exists and is a serious problem.”
You will soon be able to read the proposals regarding parental alienation. Look for: Parental Alienation Disorder and DSM-V, American Journal of Family Therapy, 2010, in press. Also, for more information, contact william.bernet@vanderbilt.edu
or Joe Kenan, M.D.
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