The parental alienation syndrome and the differentiation between fabricated and genuine child sex abuse by Richard A Gardner (1987-05-03)

Dr. Richard Gardner, a well known child psychiatrist with a specialty in child psychotherapy, has brought his years of experience in child custody cases to this work. Dr. Gardner first traces the history of the adversary system (our societal sanctioned means of conflict resolution) with particular emphasis on the evolution of child custody litigation. He outlines the gradual shift in child custody litigation from the tender years presumption (presumption that unless the mother was demonstrably unfit, the child is better off living with the mother) to the more sex-neutral position of best interest of the child presumption. The evolution of the latter concept has, along with a new tendency toward granting joint custody, reduced the likelihood that custody will be automatically granted to the mother. Within the last decade, Dr. Gardner reports an ever increasing number of custody litigations which involve extreme and irrational levels of hatred and vilification of the non-custodial parent