El síndrome de alienación parental. Descripción y abordajes psico-legales

Résumé

The parental alienation syndrome, proposed by Richard A. Gardner (1985), describes a disorder that occurs in some very distressing marriage break-ups, in which the children censure, criticise and reject one of their parents in an unjustified and/or exaggerated way. This concept includes a brainwashing component, which means that one parent systematically and consciously programs the children so they will insult the other, in addition to other “subconscious and unconscious” factors used by the “alienating” parent. It also includes child factors, which are independent of the parents’ contributions, and which play an important role in the development of the syndrome. Little or nothing is reported about the alienated parent’s participation. Solutions should take into account the interaction of personal, family, and legal factors. In this sense, family mediation, understood as a psycho-juridical approach to psycho-juridical conflicts, could be effective. Family mediation goes beyond simply facilitating negotiation processes and pays special attention to the creation of a cooperative family context that contributes to the transformation of the process of conflict. Mediation should adapt to the situation caused by the legal battle, in which, as a rule, the differences of the two sides blind them to their real needs.