There is a lot of research and many experts who have had a lot to stay recently about parental alienation. I will add some links below to relevant research. Parental alienation for the uninitiated is a form of brainwashing of a child by one parent with the goal of making the targeted parent an unwanted person in their lives. This is very much similar to some cults brainwashing people to have nothing to do with their family and follow the “church”

Studies have shown that 10% of all divorces result in one parent alienating the children from another.

Prevalent signs as highlighted by research are;

1. Children who are alienated show disdain for the targeted parent. They show absolutely no empathy or feeling for that parent and it is as if they cannot remember a happy past with that parent. Their past has been “rewritten” and you the targeted parent is vile and no good at all.
2. The children have absurd rationalizations with regard to reasons for being hostile toward you. So they now hate you for e.g because the food is not good enough or to their standards and they can make untrue accusations as well.
3. The parent who is alienating this child is regarded by this child as perfect and the targeted parent is completely flawed.
4. These children/young adults will be convinced this is their own thoughts and feelings and has not been influenced by their parent, they will actually vehemently deny anything else except the fact that it is their own thoughts and feelings.
5. They do not feel any empathy or guilt about how they treat this targeted parent. They will often be rude, spiteful and cold. There is absolutely no gratitude for anything the targeted parent provides or gives the children. These children feel that whatever the targeted parent provides is actually owed to them.
6. It will be as if the alienating parent has cloned himself, you will hear his nasty narcissistic phrases come out of your children’s mouths ; aimed at you.
7. These children will then also reject the targeted parents family. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins everyone is tarred with the same brush.

The scariest thing for a targeted parent and I know this because I have lived through it, is that when the alienating parent and the children all treat you with disdain and disrespect, you break down and become emotional as it feels as if you have entered a twilight world where everything has changed and any social workers and whoever else enters the scene hereafter sees the lies as truth and this can spiral into children who are placed with the alienating parent who just has even more time to emotionally abuse the children even further.

Isobel

8 manifestations of parental alienation

Legal information on parental alienation