Parental Alienation - Professional Acceptance

Professional Acceptance

A survey of mental health and legal professionals indicated that there is moderate support for the existence of parental alienation, but reluctance to accept the concept of parental alienation syndrome. William Bernet has argued for the inclusion of "parental alienation disorder", a diagnosis related to parental alienation, in the fifth version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, to be released in 2013. His conception makes reference to parental alienation syndrome and a variety of other descriptions of behaviours he believes represent the underlying concept of parental alienation disorder. Despite lobbying by proponents, it was not included in the draft of the DSM manual which was released in 2010 though parental alienation disorder does appear as a "Condition Proposed by Outside Sources" to be reviewed by a working group.