Alienation and Attachment 1 Running head: PARENTAL ALIENATION AND ATTACHMENT THEORY Parental Alienation in Light of Attachment Theory: Consideration of the Broader Implications for Child Development, Clinical Practice, and Forensic Process Benjamin D. Garber HealthyParent.com Submitted: July 7, 2004 Revised: July 21, 2004 Revised: July 25, 2004 Accepted: July 25, 2004 This article is © 2004 Benjamin D. Garber, Ph.D. and has been accepted for publication in the December, 2004, issue of the Journal of Child Custody. As such, this manuscript may not be quoted, duplicated or otherwise communicated without the author’s written permission. For more information contact Dr. Garber at
[email protected] or the Journal of Child Custody at http://www.haworthpressinc.com/store/product.asp?sku=J190. Alienation and Attachment 2 Abstract Few ideas have captured the attention and charged the emotions of the public, of mental health and legal professionals as thoroughly as the concept of parental alienation and Gardner’s (1987) Parental Alienation Syndrome. For all of this controversy, the alienation concept stands outside developmental theory and without firm empirical support. The present paper explores alienation and its conceptual counterpart, alignment, as the necessary and natural tools of child-caregiver attachment (Ainsworth & Wittig, 1969; Bowlby, 1969) and of family system cohesion. This conceptual foundation offers developmentalists, clinicians, and family law professionals alike a common language and valuable instruments with which to understand those relatively infrequent but highly charged circumstances in which these tools are used as weapons, particularly in the context of contested custody litigation. The need to establish baseline measures, child-centered interventions, and legal remedies anchored in the attachment model is discussed.