The Unbearable Rightness of Reason

To those who have written to me in the belief that I have somehow joined with Childress on his Facebook page, I am sorry to disappoint you but I haven’t and I won’t be joining with Dr Childress now or at anytime in the future.

Until or unless Dr Childress is able to recognise that his model of work is not the only solution to the problem and until he is able to acknowledge the work of all of the other people in the world who give their time and energy to finding solutions to the problem of parental alienation, professional to professional discussion with him is futile.

---

Demagogue

A demagogue or rabble-rouser is a leader in a democracy who gains popularity by exploiting prejudice and ignorance among the common people, whipping up the passions of the crowd and shutting down reasoned deliberation.

Demagogy

A group of demagogues.

If one reads blogs or face book,  one would be forgiven for thinking that only two people exist in the world of parental alienation, Childress and Woodall.

In the world of alienated parents this is an unfortunate outcome because it means that they are prevented from knowing and hearing about all of the people who do this work and who have done this work over many decades.

Alienated parents need information.  They need help, guidance and advice and it is out there in bucket loads for them to access.  There are so many people working in this field, people who do so selflessly and tirelessly, that to see parents forced into a cult-de-sac of being forced to believe that there is only one of two choices is nothing short of tragic.

Alienated parents are vulnerable and they urgently need clear and lucid guidance on their own situation. What they do not need is to be led to believe that there is a choice to be made between the ‘right’ way and the ‘wrong’ way. Life is confusing and painful enough for alienated parents and their families, they need access to all of the literature, all of the knowledge and most of all, how to become alienation aware with a clear mindset which allows them to make the right choices for their children.

The cacophony of other parents chanting for their leader is simply wrong in the lives of alienated parents and it denies access to the rich and varied sources of help and support which abound in this field.

I for one am heartily tired of this division of two writers into good and bad and the belief which is promulgated that writers of blogs can somehow save the world from parental alienation.  It is a nonsense. It is the result of the priming of split thinking in the minds of hurt and vulnerable parents and it results not in furthering the knowledge about what works for families but in stasis.

Writers of blogs are not the saviours of the universe no matter how much we like to believe our writing is important to people.  The people who are doing the work of furthering the academic study, the people who are working with families and standing in the full force of the negative transference that brings and the people who are out there building structures and strategies for change are the people who will change this world for the better.

So today, as the dust settles, let’s start thinking carefully and rationally about this issue.

There are people who are taking the time to write peer reviewed papers and books academically to build upon the work of their colleagues.

People who are building new strategies to bring the issue of parental alienation into public consciousness.

People who are working with families today and everyday.

All of whom contribute so much more to this field than blogging and all of whom understand the issues just as deeply and feel the urgent need for change just as powerfully.

The power to change this world is not in the hands of two people who write blogs.  It is in the hands of many and now is time to recognise this.

The world is changing, there is increasing knowledge about parental alienation and this is a critical year in which the work of so many people around the world will be seen and heard.

Stop, look and listen.

Open your mind.

---

I want to direct people’s attention today to the huge numbers of people around the world who are working towards solutions to this deeply painful and corrosive problem.  

There are four major conferences tackling parental alienation around the world this year, all of which have drawn together key legal and mental health professionals to push for change.

Simply Parent Conference – June 29th – Fort Collins USA.

PASG2018 – August 24/25 – Stockhom, Sweden.

EAPAP Conference – August 30/31st – London, England.

EMMF Conference – October – Tasmania – Details to be announced.

Work is being done academically to build scientific knowledge about parental alienation by Bill Bernet and colleagues from PASG.

Writing and research continues by Amy Baker and colleagues.

Alongside these conferences, work is ongoing to build strategic change to push parental alienation into the public consciousness by Simply Parent.

Standards of practice with alienated children and their families and training which certifies  those standards are being curated by the Family Separation Clinic.

And the ICD 11 will include parental alienation in it for the first time.