6/10/2023

It’s the most insidious form of psychological child abuse happening behind closed doors within toxic families, and it takes only one parent/primary caregiver to have either a diagnosed or undiagnosed personality disorder. Yes, it is truly a hidden psychological condition among affected parents in our society, running rampant. At its core, it is one pathological parent (usually a Borderline Personality Disordered person or a Narcissistic Personality Disordered person) actively manipulating their child to hate their other parent. It is an abusive crusade designed to hurt the other parent, as much as they must also embark on a smearing campaign to annihilate the other parent’s credibility to all others. It creates chaos within those families and distorts the healthy psychological development of our children, perpetuating the mental disease. Indeed, this form of child psychological abuse, make no mistake, not only ruins the loving relationship between a healthy, loving parent and their child, but also under the eyes of the law, gives equal parental rights and power to the psychologically pathological parent over their child. Sadly, our justice system is only in its infancy in grasping an understanding of this phenomenon, and worse, in how to adjudicate it. However, our body of psychological professionals are steadily growing in their acknowledgement of this deeply damaging phenomenon thanks to professionals such as Craig Childress, Psy. D and his efforts in not only bringing this problem to light, but in providing clear structure and clear criteria for diagnosing the situation within our court system when presented with it and a means of resolving the ongoing abusive situations. You usually see this abuse manifest during divorces where the child is having to share equal time in the homes of both parents. Whether they realize it or not, courts distinguish these “High Conflict” divorces as such, (often ordering both parents to go to “High Conflict” classes) not knowing that within each of them, there is a pathological parent at play.