Lol little men , this made me smile big time xx

Good evening little men…

Hope you both are doing very well and had a great day as little men should..

Sorry I am a little late today but had tons of stuff to do , the house is done ! And I am sleeping in my own bed today , first time sine October last year , feels like a life time but I am well pleased it’s all done now… You two must let me know if you want my new address…..

Found all your Christmas things today also …guess I will need to try and find a good home for all these things also as I assume you two will never get to see the stuff again…..

Ouma and Oupa have been absolute stars helping to sort all the stuff but I must say I think we all are going to be in bed early tonight and might not be able to walk tomorrow …lol …but it had to be done ……

Your blog is almost at 9700 hits today , so I think it will hit 10 000 by the weekend , you have a couple of new people following it daily also and we have had some lovely comments again , makes me proud to know how many people care so much for you both ….I hope you two will get to know this all one day …..

Don’t have big plans for tomorrow but I need to get to the bank as I need to do some swift TT’s , so I think I will be going to the mall tomorrow , maybe I might even have time to have a Wimpy milkshake ….can’t wait ….

We are still having yet more rain here , they say we are going to have a wet one until the weekend …must say I can do with some sunshine…..

Well little men I need to shoot as I have to go get a bite to eat still ….

So as always little champs I hope to see you both later tonight under our big old green tree in dream land , can’t wait for my dream double O cuddles in my own bed…….

Night , night little men , sweet dreams of happy times ….

Love you both lots and lots and miss you lots more ….

Love you little men…..always ….

Dad xx

Men as fathers do shed tears after all.

By Paul D Manning
March 22, 2013

My name is Paul Manning, this is my story and what I’m about to tell you is totally true. The following movie comparison may not be, however I use it here to emphasize and illustrate the injustices and pain perpetrated upon many parents, but particularly upon fathers especially so since I am one myself. I feel the comparison is apt and fitting although you may think it’s a little over the top, but with respect I think you would be wrong.
The comparison.
One of my all time favourite films is “Schindler’s List” It is the story of a brave and courageous German business, ‘Oscar Schindler’ a man who during the 2nd war endeavored to save the lives of hundreds of Jews from their fate of being gassed to death by the Nazis. It is not possible for me to forget a particular poignant scene in the film where a lone forlorn blonde haired little girl, dressed in her tidy red coat, is seen scurrying down the street terrified by the horrors that surround her. She is lost and shaken, she is without the protection of her father to make her feel safe and secure and she has no idea where she is going as she seeks to find her father.
Countless children were being systematically separated from their Jewish parents by a Nazi regime that was hell-bent on exterminating them all, along with any bonds of hope and love they might still have remaining for each other. A regime that was empowered by sheepish cowardly people, by the masses, by your average upstanding voting citizen who mostly supported what was going on, all be it blindly. The law and authority of the day took children from their parents and off they went to Auschwitz or Belsen, concentration camps set up to butcher them. The parents were directed one way and their tearful petrified children went another, but all, equally, to their horrible deaths. I distinctly remember that movie and through clever use of colour on black and white, your eye is directed to the only colour seen on the screen up to then. It is at this point you discover what has been the little girl’s fate. Her red coat is the only color you see and there she is laying dead on the top of a heap of bloody bodies on the back of a horse-drawn cart. I have to tell you that my feelings were such that I just couldn’t prevent myself shedding tears at this point in the scene.
Sometimes when we face and watch such horror as this it can sensitive us even more to the suffering of others. Ok it is sad and harrowing to watch, but somehow it will make you a better human being because your tears are full of empathy and of anger at the injustices taking place. That intense emotional feeling can make you act in ways for good that you never thought possible. As an example, Sir Bob Geldof (a hero of mine) was so moved and angered by the sight of starving African pot-bellied children, that it led him to forcefully demand on TV, in that Dublin brogue of his, “Give us your fucking money and now!” He didn’t quite manage to feed the world, but he had a damn good try, and probably saved thousands from starvation. Yes he cared, but that care was brought about by what he observed and his feelings of rage, and so he found it impossible to ignore the terrible injustice that was taking place to others less fortunate than himself.
So, why am I telling you all this and what is the little girls plight comparable to in my own story? I shall tell you, because in many ways such a situation is still taking place today, yes right here in the good old United Kingdom, that’s why! Every day of every week the authority and perverted family courts of our own country is separating hundreds of sons and daughters from their fathers and starving them of the love and protection they deserve from their dads. It is happening right under your very noses and with seeming legality. Ok our children are not being shipped off to concentration camps or being gassed, but did you know that many fathers have been imprisoned for their demonstrations against the cruelty of the state towards them, just for trying to get back to the ones they love so that they can see them again, their own flesh and blood, their children. I ask you, Is this so wrong that they deserve to be incarcerated?
The severe emotional pain of fathers, who are not in a position to protect or even see their loved ones, is exactly the same pain and emotion as that experienced by a fearful father who had lost his little red-coated precious daughter as depicted in the film. He had lost her and was beside himself with worry, how on Earth was he expected to deal with such pain as this, indeed how can any parent? The circumstances are different yes, but the pain and bereavement of losing a child is the same. Unless you have experienced it you cannot possibly know how it feels. It is a chasm of darkness void of even a flickering candle of hope, but somehow it is the love of your child in your heart that keeps you going and you hang on to that thin strand of hope, it is all you have.
I am not telling you all this to obtain your sympathy, but that very same pain is in my heart every minute of the day, it is a pain that will not go away. It eats away at me and makes me angry and confused. I constantly ask myself… ‘why is this happening to me and my child, what have I done that is so wrong? What have I done to deserve the emotional pain of separation from a son I truly love?’ And you know what?…Not a soul or a Family court Judge has ever been able to give me the answer.
How it all started.
At the age of 45 I never dreamt that I would get the chance to have another child, but thankfully I did. My previous children had all grown up and in many ways I had some regrets that I had not spent more time with them or gotten to know them better. I stupidly thought that to work every hour God sent was the wise course, and I admit that I made some terrible mistakes in bringing them up strictly within the regime of our religion at the time, God I was so wrong and have many regrets! But now this time things were going to be different, I had another chance to give all my time and love to the son of my maturing age, and I was so happy to do it too.
And so Elliott was born in the midst of a great swell of love between his mother and me, she and I were never ever going to part, it just couldn’t happen. On the day she bought that pregnancy test and it showed positive, well that was one of the happiest days of my life and she knew it. I was determined to support her as much as I could. I attended all the ante-natal classes with her at the hospital, every nuance of Elliott’s development and growth I wanted to know about. The day came when I lifted Elliott out of his mother’s womb and out of the warm waters of the birthing pool, yes he was born at home. The midwife had seen how intent I was and emotionally involved, so with her guiding hand close by she had allowed me to lift my son out of the waters and to hold him while he took his first breath of life. I cried tears of happiness as I looked into his eyes and then into the eyes of his exhausted mother that I truly loved. I remember those tears so much, so very much in love we were and so happy to have our special son, Elliott.
After Maria’s maternity leave expired she was eager to get back to work and to enhance her career as a teacher and reflexologist. She had loosely talked about getting a child-minder so that we could both keep working, I was self-employed with a small timber and laminate flooring concern. Maria was not prepared to give up work, but there was no way I was going to let someone else look after Elliott, indeed I insisted that I stayed at home to be his main carer. And so I shelved my business and eagerly took up being a full-time dad while Maria worked.
I bonded with Elliott in the most remarkable way, I loved to watch him sleep and to feed him was a fun time for us both. I remember that he loved splashing about in the tub and giggling with such glee. Elliott became old enough to go to nursery school, so I took him on his first day. It was the first time we had been apart and I cried more than he did when I left him in the care of a stranger.
He eventually grew to like nursery, but he was always in a rush to get back home to his dad. So, I had become Elliott’s main carer and was fully involved in his education. When he moved on in to junior school I was picking him up most days and getting to know all the staff and teachers there, I was well-known by all there. Elliott was now six and was keen to learn football and cricket; we spent hours together at the park with some of his pals from school, knocking a ball about. After we would go back to mum and I would do the normal thing of making dinner, yes I even did all the cooking and doing the house choirs too. Looking back now I realise that I had made a huge mistake in giving up to much of my personal life, my friends, my pastimes, my pub quiz and playing in the snooker team, but now it was all gone. All this so I could be with Maria and Elliott, I loved them too much I guess, is that possible to do? I realise now that I had lost my own identity. In all this time I had not noticed that I had become fully domesticated and kind of house bound because my World revolved around Elliott.
I don’t know what happened, but the time came when Maria voiced the opinion that the spark had gone out of our relationship, I couldn’t understand how it had come to this, all I know was that most of my time was spent caring for our son and for Maria and for her 2 daughters as well. I was so disappointed, foolishly I thought everything was fine between us, but evidently I was wrong. Maria craved excitement and her French ways were very demanding, she always got what she wanted in the end. After I had made her home a palace and fit to live in, much of which was at my own expense, eventually we broke up. I was heartbroken and it made me very sad and to some degree depressed, my doctor prescribed prozac to cheer me up, it didn’t work.
So, I went back to my own dilapidated house that I had rented out to students so as to raise some extra cash to help along with Maria’s finances. She knew that I loved Elliott dearly so she agreed to draw up a written agreement where we would share Elliott’s care 50/50. He had his own bedroom at my home and all his own things that I had acquired for him. Fortunately Maria’s house was only just over the garden wall, so Elliott didn’t feel much of a change or any upheaval. I had always trusted Maria even though we were not married and therefore never saw the need to apply for, PR, “parental responsibility” why would I? However, I now realise that I didn’t really know Maria at all, because she flatly refused to give me that PR. From this point on I worried greatly and I realised that Maria was a total controlling egotist, it’s often the French way to exert their characters in this manner.
After 2 years of separation the day came when Maria emailed me to say that she had met someone else and for some reason or other that I should stop picking Elliott up from school, a thing I cherished doing. I emailed back to calmly say that it was ok; that I would rather keep doing it and it would upset Elli if I wasn’t there to get him from school. No! she ordered, “I want you to stop picking him up altogether” I politely refused. I contacted a solicitor who advised me that she had no right to unilaterally change the written agreement we had drawn up together, that had been in force over the past 2 years after our separation. Apprehensively on the following Wednesday I went to school, as was normal, to get Elliott, there was no fuss and for Elliott it was just a routine time with his father. We then went to a play centre with one of my friends and his two kids who are pals with Elliott.
While there I received a call on my mobile from the police accusing me of abducting Elliott from his mother and that I should return him and at once. I was deeply shocked and tried to explain to them that it was nonsense and not to believe a word she said. Elliott was not party to what was happening or to what was said, for him my concern was shielding him from any pain or harm. Under these circumstances I decided to accept the invite to go to tea with my friend’s family. While there I received another call from the police ordering me to take Elliott back to his mother, this unnerved me and I was deeply worried. I told them I would be taking Elliott to school as normal the following day and that everything was fine. We stayed at my friend’s house over night to avoid any distress to Elliott should I go back to my own home and find the police waiting for me, also Maria spitting lies everywhere while waiting for me to return home, I wanted to avoid that likely scenario. The following day I dropped Elliott off at school as promised. I hugged him and said goodbye wondering if this was the start of a battle to continue to have my son in my life.
Little did I know that police had battered down my door during the night, I found it laying on the garden lawn as I arrived home. Under close police supervision I spent the next 6 hours under police custody at my home although not arrested. I was released without charge or even a caution following my interview. The interviewing officer could see I was a reasonable man, not the lunatic Maria had now portrayed me to be. The police eventually realized what was going on here and expressed their annoyance at spending thousands of pounds in man hours in searching for my car with a police helicopter assisting the night before.
The next day and unknown to me Maria had been able to secure an ex-parte emergency family court hearing. She was granted an injunction barring me from going anywhere near Elliott’s school or her home. I was not even allowed a chance to defend myself to her crazy made up allegations, all done in secret without prior notice given to me. Thus began an ongoing nightmare of family court hearings that have wiped out most of my savings and restricted Elliott of any contact with his father during these (presently) 4 years of court hearings.
After a year of hearings at the family courts I was allowed access to Elliott who was by now 8 years of age. An interim order was made giving me contact for 6 hours a week, but supervised by friends. Why the supervision? I had no idea, but was forced to accept it as I was told that it was the only way I would get to see the son I loved. After some time and with Cafcass’s fabricating involvement the contact arrangement was halted based upon a total lie, giving me no access to Elliott at all. After a further 6 months battling through the courts eventually I was allowed contact again, but this time at a local private contact centre, having to personally finance the arrangement myself to the tune of some £80 for each visit lasting for just 2 hours a month. If that wasn’t enough, Cafcass had arranged for contact to be supervised by two ‘bouncers’ from ‘Core children’s services’, invoicing me for over £700 for the service and possibly rising to £800 if contact reports are required. I was outraged by this and I knew then that Cafcass were siding entirely with my Ex. The longer this has gone on the angrier I became and the more anger and distress I showed the more Cafcass wanted me out of Elliott’s life, it was a catch 22 situation for me, with no way out.
And the reason I am so closely supervised? Following advice from my solicitor, yes I had indeed collected Elliott from school that day as was normal with the shared care arrangement we had made together, Post separation. We had sat down and had both signed up to that written agreement to share parenting of Elliott. A contract I thought superseded any individual parent being able to trump the other, I had that in writing and it was signed by both of us. Only the day came when Maria unilaterally decided to break the agreement and withhold all access forthwith, but certainly this had nothing to do with me being a bad father or that I have ever harmed my son in any way. I love him with all my heart and he feels the same way towards me.
Just 2 hours a month supervised contact with my son, God! even prisoners get more visitation rights! For some strange reason now I am prevented any of Elliott’s school reports and ordered not to talk to him about his education or about anything remotely connected with his mother. Despite the false surroundings, Elliott asks for more time with me and gets upset when our short time together comes to an end each month. The independent supervisors report well and their feedback has always been positive and accurate. They have written many fine reports for the Cafcass officer to read on how happy Elliott is to see me and how I am more than a capable father. However, Cafcass and the courts have not listened and the close supervision has remained in place.
Recently, due to problems fabricated by Maria the manager of the contact centre informed me he would not be able to continue supplying a facility for contact for Elliott and me, it seems that I am not paying enough for him to be bothered with handling extra issues thrown up by my ex, which are many, she has to fabricate some complaint or other to make me look bad and has done this at every contact. And so once again the inevitable visits back to court making for more delays and more separation from Elliott while this Hell goes on.
Due to the stress of all this I have finally lost my business, the last 4 years have devastated me and funds are nonexistent. My attending endless court hearings and related appointments has left me feeling hopeless and debased. Now I have had to seek medical help to deal with the stress and this in turn has been used against me to suggest that I am ill in some way and not fit to care for my son, a thing I was well able to do and happily did before my ex brought these proceedings. I know that things are stacked purposely against me It leaves me with a stark choice of going into debt, or giving up what little contact I have. Sometimes I have felt suicidal, without hope, debased and made to feel like I am a terrible father, yet in my heart I know I am a good dad. Someone who has stood by my son since the very day he was born. I was his main carer, I was his play mate, his security and I love him to bits.
I have faced many allegations that seem to be regularly plucked out of thin air, the Cafcass officer believes every word my ex says and reports them to the court as facts without any investigation or reference back to me. My ex can say whatever she wants and it is given credence and my side of the story is never sought and my efforts to toe the line in this process go unnoticed and ignored. My life is on hold while this process goes on. I cannot turn my back on my son, yet cannot afford to pay further huge financial demands to see him each month.
Last year (March 14th2012) I won my appeal at the high court in London, the Judges sympathised at the rough deal I had been offered and said that little attention had been given to what Elliott wanted which was more contact and more time with me. I am still traumatized by what has happened and feel deeply apprehensive about further future hearings in the biased family courts. I know that I might possibly have to go through the same hell again, to see another psychologist again who will report whatever negatives are pre-loaded into the court bundle that she receives about me. I am presently complaining to the appropriate authorities about this so-called expert’s evidence. I find it distressing and tiresome, but I love Elliott enough to carry on with my fight for justice, it is not just for me, but for the son that loves his father.
I have not seen my son for 14 months now, I am eager to get back to court before Maria alienates him completely, so that contact can be re-established. I do not want to take Elliott from his mother, I have always made that clear to all. I know that he loves her and I would not do anything to change that, in fact I would encourage it. However, I write often to Elliott, but don’t know if the letters are forwarded to him. Recently Maria has moved house and I have no idea where to, she will not agree to allow me to know of her new residence so I can write to Elliott there. All contact has now been severed from Elliott I know nothing at all about his life, NOTHING! The courts have all the information in this regard, but see fit to allow this situation to continue. And the courts are there for the welfare of our children? This is a huge joke to me! I believe they do more damage to families than good, I am sure of it. I wait to go back to the hell of the family courts to fight on in the world of total bias in favour of mothers, where fathers have to prove beyond a shadow of doubt that they are good fathers fit to see their own flesh and blood. This is not the case for mothers, they are looked upon with sympathy, and surely mothers don’t lie do they, or do they?
Support for each other and tears.
On June the 16th 2012 I attended a rally with many other fathers desperate to see their children again. It was organised by Fathers 4 Justice and took place in London at Trafalgar Square. I observed the same sad look in many of those fathers’ eyes as I have in my own, but because of my own experience of being excluded from my son’s life I felt true understanding and compassion for them. We were able to strengthen each other’s resolve to carry on with the fight to seek justice for our children. We embraced each other without shame and listened with empathy to each other’s stories. To take upon yourself the weight of a strangers load while still bearing your own seems to me to be the loving and right thing to do. Many hundreds of fathers all of which brought along their missing children’s photos and shoes placing them all together in a show of unity and grieving. Yes many of us shed tears for each other and openly, are not our children worth the tears of their fathers? I think so, don’t you? So, real men do cry and fathers who live everyday thinking about those they love and miss cry even more.

So, the next time you watch “Schindler’s List” spare a thought for that little girl in the red coat and also for her father bereaved and grieving at heart for the love he has for his lost child. Then be sure to shed a tear for all children missing their dads, I do every day and for my son Elliott. I will say in conclusion that something truly evil exists within the Family courts, it is my duty to try to change it for all good fathers out there that are heartlessly cut out of their children’s lives. Until the day I die I will always love you my dear son. May God bless you Elliott and all those who have taken the time to read my story here. On my oath it is the truth

Paul Manning

LIMITED DEFINITION OF PARENTAL ALIENATION SYNDROME INCLUDED IN DSM-V
by Robert Franklin, Esq.

For many years now, feminists and other anti-father minions have fought tooth and nail against the very concept of Parental Alienation and Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS). That opposition has taken many forms, but the most seriously contested battlefield has been over the pages of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Specifically, those opposed to the acknowledgement of PAS staked their all on keeping it out of the fifth and most recent edition of the DSM.

They lost. Science won. As this article by Barbara Kay informs us, although PAS as such is still excluded from the DSM, what’s included are concepts that get about as close as possible to PAS without actually being called that (National Post, 5/23/13).

Thanks to the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), launched last week, PAS is now almost logged in as an official disorder. I say “almost” because those exact words are not in the DSM-5 (this was a deliberate and much-discussed decision). However, the new broader category of “child psychological abuse” is defined as “non-accidental verbal or symbolic acts by a child’s parent or caregiver that result, or have reasonable potential to result, in significant psychological harm to the child.”

That of course is vastly broader than any definition of PAS that focuses on one parent’s targeting of the other parent via the alienation of the child. That clearly does result in harm to the child, but that’s not its purpose. But there’s more.

Under this rubric, one finds in a description of “parent-child relational problem” symptoms that all but link hands and sing out PAS. For example, the child’s perception of an alienated parent “may include negative attributions of the other’s intentions, hostility toward or scapegoating of the other, and unwarranted feelings of estrangement.”

As Kay accurately states, that’s not exactly PAS, but it’s close. Moreover, any mental health professional who would otherwise make a diagnosis of PAS can now make a diagnosis of “parent-child-relational problem” and have the imprimatur of the APA and its DSM-V. And no lawyer in court can say that the diagnosis isn’t covered by the bible of the APA.

In the long run-up to the fifth edition, much commentary was produced on all manner of mental health issues, PAS among them. The politics of getting the thing published looked fraught with anguish and peril. That much was obvious, and, reading between the lines, what resulted is a compromise between science and dogma.

Yes, there seem to be principled mental health professionals who opposed inclusion of PAS in the DSM-V. But in the mainstream press and among the lay commentariat, there was no principle involved. Among them, the very idea of PAS is an attack on mothers and their unquestioned right to primary custody in most if not all cases. Time and again, their arguments against PAS inclusion ran the gamut from absurd to hypocritical to dishonest. Put simply, this was the anti-father crowd at its anti-intellectual, anti-justice, anti-child worst.

Possibly the most scurrilous example was brought to us by the National Organization for Women that put out a white paper on PAS that managed in a few words to utterly misrepresent the history of PAS, the science of PAS, its harmful effects on children and the fact that PAS recognition would end up helping mothers. NOW gets a lot wrong; in fact, it’s kind of a time-honored tradition of theirs. But the PAS white paper descended to new depths.

What’s true about PAS is that it’s mostly mothers who alienate their kids. That’s because it’s mostly mothers who have custody and it usually requires the kind of time custodial parents have to accomplish the alienation of a child from a parent. The simple fact is that, if a child spends 80% of his/her time with Mom, Dad can’t alienate the child even if he wants to. He doesn’t have the opportunity and all his effort collapses because the child has plenty of time with its mother to learn that she’s really not as bad as Dad makes out.

Of course some fathers are in a position to alienate their children, and sadly some of them do. The literature on PAS is never gender-specific; it never claims that alienation is something mothers do but dads don’t.

But typically, NOW and other anti-father groups don’t care about the science. If they did, they wouldn’t oppose PAS inclusion. No, what they care about is anything that holds the potential for improving fathers’ rights in family courts. It doesn’t much matter what that might be, they oppose it. Period. They’ll get to making up their excuses later.

Predictably, the excuses they came up with regarding PAS were lame in the extreme. According to them, PAS is a plot by fathers’ rights groups to take children from “protective mothers.” They never get around to explaining how a mother who so abuses her children that they hate and fear their loving father is “protective” of them. And of course they never explain why, if PAS inclusion is an insidious scheme to steal away children from mothers, fathers engage in parental alienation. Obviously, that makes no sense, but NOW, et al, long ago stopped doing that.

Then of course there was NOW’s outright lie that there’s no science to support PAS. In all honesty, the massive amount of science on PAS developed actually since the 1950s, and rigorously since the 1980s, in all parts of the globe is a bit too significant to get tossed aside by NOW in a few words. But the simple fact is that if NOW and the others had anything of substance with which to oppose PAS inclusion, don’t you think they’d have mentioned it? When you have to make stuff up to support your point of view, your point of view isn’t worth supporting.

But the deep and broad awfulness of the anti-dad crowd’s opposition certainly doesn’t stop at mere dishonesty, it’s radically anti-child too. PAS is child abuse. It’s child abuse that can have detrimental effects long into adulthood. Read any description of an alienated child. Read just a few pages of, for example, Linda Gottlieb’s fine text, The Parental Alienation Syndrome: A Family Therapy and Collaborative Systems Approach to Amelioration. Any of countless descriptions of what parents do to children and its effects on them will make you tear your hair out. More importantly, it’ll remove any doubt from your mind that parental alienation can be in any way benign. It’s clearly abusive.

And so, by opposing recognition of PAS, NOW struck a blow against children’s welfare. By trying to convince us that PAS doesn’t exist, NOW and the others were attempting to perpetuate its awful, destructive process. In so doing, they sought to damage children. It really doesn’t get any worse than that.

Well, it doesn’t get worse unless you’re an advocate for mothers. Then yes, it gets worse. By opposing PAS inclusion and by utterly misrepresenting it, NOW ironically supports alienating parents (mostly mothers) in their campaign to keep fathers out of the lives of their children. If they’d been successful, who would then have been left holding the childcare bag? That’s right, mothers.

If a mother succeeds at her campaign of alienation, she ends up with the child full-time. Every decision is hers, every night, every weekend she’s on duty. Is the child sick? She takes care of it. Does the child get in trouble in school, with the law? She deals with it. Every bit of the job of raising the child falls to her.

And what does that do to her earnings, her ability to find and keep a well-paying full-time job? Obviously, it puts a major dent in it and that means she and the child live on less and when she retires, she’s in dire financial straits.

And that, my friends, is what NOW argues for when it argues against inclusion of PAS in the DSM-V. It’s kind of ironic for an organization that claims it wants to empower women. Indeed it’s doubly ironic for one that has long argued for more women in the workplace.

So what can we conclude? It looks a lot like NOW’s anti-male bias is stronger than its pro-female one.

All of that is to say that it’s a good thing that NOW lost and science won in the long and rancorous debate about PAS.

I spoke with Vanderbilt University’s Emeritus professor of psychiatry Bill Bernet, who specializes in divorce and custody effects on children, and who was the leading advocate for PAS’s inclusion in the DSM. He told me: “Even though it does not go quite as far as we’d hoped, I’m very happy that this new terminology is in the DSM-5.”

Professor Bernet leads the Parental Alienation Study Group, whose members are dedicated to educating clinicians, social workers and other frontline professionals, so that they will recognize the disorder by its invariable features and develop strategies for combatting it. The trickledown effect of the DSM inclusion will hopefully play out in family court, with judges acquiring familiarity with the syndrome and moving swiftly to protect the child from the alienating parent.

https://nationalparentsorganization.org/blog/20972-limited-definition-of-parental-alienation-syndrome-included-in-dsm-v