PARENTAL ALIENATION SYNDROME: A PARADIGM FOR CHILD ABUSE IN AUSTRALIAN FAMILY LAW Dr Elspeth McInnes https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237371917_PARENTAL_ALIENATION_SYNDROME_A_PARADIGM_FOR_CHILD_ABUSE_IN_AUSTRALIAN_FAMILY_LAW
Excerpts Page 4 " Parental Alienation Syndrome differs from the concept of ‘parental alienation’ by rescripting children’s disclosures of abuse by a parent as false accusations coached by other parent. That is, PAS begins from the premise that children who allege serious abuse by a parent are lying and that they are made to lie by an apparently protective parent. PAS thus offers violent controlling ex-partners a pseudo-scientific set of ‘symptoms’ to deny allegations of child abuse and pathologize the alleging child and protective parent.
The outcomes of PAS assist child abuse. Indeed Gardner has published statements sympathetic to child sex abuse as a social practice. In 1992, in his book, True and False Accusations of Child Sex Abuse, Gardner argued that pedophilia -- adults having sexual relations with children -- ''is a widespread and accepted practice among literally billions of people.'' While he states that sexual activity with children is ''reprehensible'' and exploitative, he noted in another book, Sex Abuse Hysteria: Salem Witch Trials Revisited, ''What I am against is the excessively moralistic and punitive reaction that many members of our society have toward pedophiles ... (going) far beyond what I consider to be the gravity of the crime.''
The impulse to normalise and support the activities of participants in child sex abuse is an integral component of the paradigm Gardner has created. PAS relies on denying the capacity of children to recognise and articulate their experiences and further denies the child’s right to safety, whilst privileging the rights of the accused parent to enforce a relationship with the child. PAS is a winner with violent parents because (a) it enables the abuser to occupy the role of victim and (b) assists and legitimises their continuing access for abuse. "