Warshak – Parental Alienation: False June 11, 2020 Positives and Myriad Concerns

Parental Alienation: False Positives and Myriad Concerns

Richard A. Warshak, Ph. D.

warshak.com [email protected] © 2020 by Richard A. Warshak

Bio

Richard A. Warshak, Ph.D. is a graduate of Cornell University and a past Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. His studies appear in 18 books and more than 80 articles on the psychology of alienated children and the impact on children of , remarriage, and relocation.

Dr. Warshak consulted to the White House on , consults and testifies internationally in child custody proceedings, and appeared in the PBS documentary Kids And Divorce. His consensus report on plans for young children, published in an American Psychological Association journal, was endorsed by 110 researchers and practitioners. It is widely held that Dr. Warshak’s amicus brief on relocation influenced a landmark ruling by the California Supreme Court, and in 2017 the New Jersey Supreme Court cited Dr. Warshak’s research in a landmark opinion replacing the prevailing standard for relocations cases with a best-interests standard.

Dr. Warshak’s book, DIVORCE POISON: HOW TO PROTECT YOUR FROM BAD-MOUTHING AND BRAINWASHING, is widely regarded as a classic. The video he co-wrote and co-produced, Welcome Back, Pluto: Understanding, Preventing, and Overcoming Parental Alienation, is used in every state in the U.S. and 30 foreign countries. His website, warshak.com, provides resources for professionals and their clients.

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Disclosures/Conflict of Interest

• Author, Divorce Poison: How To Protect Your Family from Bad-mouthing and Brainwashing – royalties from HarperCollins, from audiobook publisher, and from foreign editions • Co-writer and co-producer, Welcome Back, Pluto: Understanding, Preventing, and Overcoming Parental Alienation — revenue from sales, including Amazon.com • Consultant to attorneys, evaluators, therapists, and • No conflict of interest • Warshak, R. A. (2020). When evaluators get it wrong: False positive IDs and parental alienation. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 26(1), 54–68. • Warshak, R. A. (2020). Risks and realities of working with alienated children. Family Court Review, 57, 432–455.

Webinar Overview

• Framework to avoid false positive IDs • Situations that can be mistaken as evidence of a child’s alienation and of a ’s alienating behavior • Sources of false positive IDs – inadequate understanding of parental alienation – insufficient efforts to reduce bias • Nuances of alienating behaviors – intensity, frequency, duration, and motivation • Remedies and risks of working with alienated children

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Clarifying terms

• Alienating behaviors — parent activities • Parental alienation – state of a parent-child relationship – child’s unreasonable aversion to a parent • Alienating behaviors ≠ parental alienation • Not every child who looks alienated is alienated

Moderate or severe parental alienation

An alienated child’s negative behavior: 1. Is chronic rather than temporary 2. Is frequent rather than occasional 3. Occurs in most situations rather than only some situations 4. Occurs without displays of genuine and affection toward the rejected parent 5. Is directed at only one parent 6. Does not reflect typical dynamics for the child’s stage of development 7. Is disproportionate to, and not justified by the rejected parent’s past or current behavior

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A child is not alienated if negative behavior reflects

• normal reactions to parental separation • a difficult temperament or • reluctance to leave a parent who needs emotional support • situation-specific resistance to being with a parent

Not alienated if . . .

• feeling closer to or having more rapport with one parent • feeling more comfortable in one’s parent’s home, either because of differences in or in the emotional atmosphere of the home • typical adolescent psychological functioning

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Avoiding false explanations for a child’s rejection of a parent

• Justified rejection • Child-driven alienation • Mixed contributions to parental alienation • Parental alienation linked to alienating behavior

Types of false positive IDs of parental alienation

• Wrongly concluding that a child is alienated • Failing to recognize that a child’s rejection of a parent is justified

• Wrongly concluding that the favored parent is solely responsible for the problem

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Sources of errors

• Poor understanding of parental alienation – Using list of alienating behaviors as a diagnostic checklist – Mislabeling behavior that superficially resembles alienating behavior • Insufficient efforts to reduce bias – Hindsight bias – Confirmatory bias

Remedies for Severe Alienation

• Temporary, but extended, no-contact order for children with their alienating parent – Shields children from negative influences – Gives uninterrupted time – Motivates the children to repair the damaged relationship – Motivates the alienating parent to modify behavior – Make-up time

Richard A. Warshak, Parental Alienation: Overview, Management, Intervention, and Practice Tips, 28 J. AM. ACAD. MATRIM. LAW. 181, 218 (2015).

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Evaluating alienating behavior

• Intensity, frequency, and duration • Motivations

Framing alienating behavior

1. Normal post- separation behavior

2. Litigation limited

3. Helping the children cope with false accusations from the other parent

4. Extenuating circumstances

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• Unfounded accusations of mistreating children • Sensationalist attacks • Social media trolls • Violence • and rumor-spreading by colleagues • Complaints to licensing boards

Welcome Back, Pluto

Understanding, Preventing, and Overcoming Parental Alienation

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Solutions to judgment errors

Poor solution: restrict the range of permissible hypotheses (e.g., ban parental alienation evidence)

Good solution: professional judgment and critical thinking about all relevant evidence

Conclusions

• Is this child irrationally alienated? • To what extent has each parent contributed to the child’s negative attitudes – Understand the nuances of the children’s and parents’ behavior. – Thoroughly investigate reasonable alternative explanations of the children’s and parents’ behavior. • Different degrees of intensity, frequency, duration, and motivation can mitigate or complicate the impact of alienating behavior.

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Conclusions (cont’d)

• Hindsight bias can lead to misinterpreting a parent’s lapses as part of a campaign of alienating behavior. • Confirmatory bias can lead to misinterpreting behavior that superficially resembles alienating behavior. • An extended period of living exclusively with the alienated parent can help severely alienated children.

Divorce Poison

How to Protect Your Family from Bad-mouthing and Brainwashing

リチャード A. ウォーシャック Richard A. Warshak 青木 聡 訳 Satoshi Aoki

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