Because of the unique characteristics of American law, which is an adversarial model in which both sides present arguments and evidence favorable to their position (rather than presenting arguments which favor the truth, whether bad or good for the client) it is no secret that anything involving the legal system and attorneys faces significant challenges in terms of formulating objective positions. Attorneys don’t get points for being objective: they get points for results.
But a wonderful thing about the practice of law is the manner in which basic rules of logic can be inserted into discussions and used to make a conclusion. Although attorneys are paid to reach conclusions and then find the evidence to support such conclusions, objective thinkers put the conclusion last.
In terms of Parental Alienation Syndrome, we tend to see a general lack of objectivity and “all-or-nothing thinking” when it comes to issues of child abuse and parental alienation. But I will say that in favor of the advocates for parental alienation, unlike their counterparts, do not deny that child abuse occurs. There are vast numbers of experts, advocates and lawyers who spend enormous amounts of time and effort attacking PAS as “unscientific” and “junk science” and making certain it is not given any credibility before the courts of law or the scientific community. They claim that PAS doesn’t exist and that it is used to provide cover for child abusers because the children naturally do not want to see an abuser. It never dawns upon them that parental alienation is a FORM of abuse. The fact that people use false charges of child abuse to gain advantage in family law proceedings is not relevant to the issue of the fact that child abuse exists. The fact that people use false allegations of parental alienation to cover for child abuse does not mean parental alienation does not exist.
The fact that litigants will say or do anything to get the results that they want means that people will make false allegations of child abuse in the context of custody proceedings, as well as make false allegations of Parental Alienation. It is rather like the claims of innocence made by inmates in a prison. There are no guilty people in prison, if you ask them. In family court, nobody is making false claims. The righteous indignation, the outrage,and the emotional overtones flow just as easily from liars as they do from truth-tellers.
But in the end, the hottest places in hell should be reserved for those who make such fabrications.
| “The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity” | |
 Andre Gide |
