ON THE MYTH OF PARENTAL ALIENATION SYNDROME (PAS) AND THE DSM-5

Abstract

This paper discusses the controversy over the existence of Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) or any other name it may be given. The negative judgements regarding PAS are diverse in nature: from criticism about the personality of the term’s creator, to the most repeated criticism that PAS does not exist in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-5. This paper analyzes some of these criticisms in the Spanish judicial context, especially those exposed in the Guidelines of the Group of Experts on the Fight against Domestic and Gender Violence of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), published in 2016. It is argued that PAS is widely recognized by the professional and scientific community and may be described and classified in the DSM-5 as a “Parent–Child Relational Problem V61.20 (Z62.820)”.

Keywords

• Parental Alienation Syndrome
• DSM
• Divorce
• Children
• Estrangement.