Letters

Editor:

I would like to congratulate Dr. Houchin and his colleagues¹ for the fine article published in the January issue. Truly, the parental alienation syndrome (PAS; or disorder, it doesn't matter which) deserves not only to be buried and forgotten, but buried in potter's field, the final repository for the homeless and nameless poor.

As a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia, working also in forensics, I have had occasion over the years to serve as an expert witness in some 30 or so child custody cases. I have been a vigorous opponent of PAS, although I have not written on the topic. It is difficult to write about cases in extenso without either including identifying details or disguising and distorting them (to safeguard confidentiality) to such an extent as to be submitting novels (of no scientific merit) rather than accurately depicted case histories.

The pocket-lining abuses Dr. Houchin alludes to are often even worse than he suggests. I have at times come up against court-appointed psychiatrists who regarded themselves as flag-bearers in the pro-PAS Army, castigating one of the parents as an alienator who was actually a model parent (usually a mother) and who went to considerable lengths not to speak negatively about the father. But the father was wealthy (in some cases, even contributing hugely to the psychiatric department to which the court-appointed man belonged), bringing his thumb down quite heavily on his side of the balance. What I see more often, if there is any diagnostic entity to discern in these gladiatorial, last-man-standing court battles, is a parent with a distinctly narcissistic personality (to the point of a disorder à la DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)). Occasionally, it is the mother, but far more often it is the father. I have seen numerous fathers end up with full custody, using PAS as a weapon to wrest primary care of a small child from its worthy mother, just for spite. That is, the father subsequently has little interest in and spends little time with the child, exulting meanwhile in his delight at obtaining custody.

Serious people in our field, people with integrity, have had to go to considerable lengths to disprove, in highly referenced and highly respected journals, the breezy and self-serving assertions of those supporting PAS. And the committee compiling the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5),² rather than laughing PAS out of court, are actually looking into it for possible inclusion. One is reminded of the great efforts reputable people must expend in combating flash-in-the-pan theories.

I share with Dr. Houchin and his colleagues the hope that the DSM committee drops the folly about PAS, which has affected adversely the lives of so many families.