PA is a VERY controversial topic.

I just read the following post at the Fathers & Families blog (that became associated with Glenn Sacks last year).

Leading Opponent of Recognizing Parental Alienation Apologizes to Fathers & Families for Defamatory Remarks.

May 24th, 2010 by Glenn Sacks, MA, Executive Director

Clinical Psychiatry News board member Dr. Paul J. Fink makes a shockingly irresponsible assertion in his recent column. He writes that family court reform groups seeking to have parental alienation disorder seriously considered for inclusion in the DSM-5 are doing so because they “don’t like to be interfered with when they are sexually abusing their children”…

It is a perfect example of the difficulty facing many people who experience PAS - gender alignment and denial - by both "sides". It doesn't help to be so polarized.

We have strongly advocated for acceptance of PAS/D within the professional Psychiatric Community, and so has Fathers & Families/Glenn Sacks. This is the reason for heavy lobbying for inclusion of PAS/D into the DSM-V with the authorities in the American Psychiatric Association. It does not mean we believe it to ONLY effect Fathers. Clearly, mothers have experienced the pain of being alienated as well. As I am fond of saying "PAS is an equal-opportunity disease!" and it has no real gender preference. In the end "bad parenting behaviour" can occur anywhere.

However, it is another thing completely to "deny" that PAS/D exists - as Fink above seems to.

Here is Monika LOGAN's take on the dangers for women of denying that PAS/D exists.

Another unflattering tactic is to demonize the founder of PAS/D - Dr. Richard Gardner. That he was a prolific contributor to discovering and promoting the condition is not to be questioned, but his enemies have grotesquely distorted and taken out of context his work to imply he was in favour of paedophilia! I have seen the same outrageous slur conducted on men who propose they are subject to PAS. Unfortunately, as Dr. Gardner passed away in 2003 he can not defend himself. In addition, that he took his own life has caused these same opponents to imply he was mentally unstable, further reflecting badly on his work. Unfortunately we can never uncover the real truth of such scurrilous charges. But we can take heart that many others - like Warshuk, Bone and Baker - have continued to expand knowledge of this insidious form of child abuse.