Parental Alienation Analysis, Domestic Violence, and Gender Bias in Minnesota Courts
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Parental Alienation Analysis,
Domestic Violence, and Gender Bias in
Minnesota Courts
Rita Bergt
Richard Gardner, a child psychiatrist, coined the term
parental alienation syndrome (PAS) in the 1980s.1 PAS directs
that where one parent coaches the child to alienate the other
parent, custody, in severe cases, should be transferred to the
alienated parent.2 The court's use of PAS is not innocuous. In
child custody cases, a child's upbringing and, in some instances,
physical safety rest on the court's decision.3
Despite wide criticism of PAS among Gardner's peers in the
psychology field,4 this theory has permeated the legal system,
appearing primarily in custody judgments.5 However, legal and
psychology experts have identified numerous hazards of using this
theory.6 These dangers have come to fruition in Minnesota's legal
system: PAS has been used effectively by fathers to gain favorable
t. J.D. Candidate, May 2011, University of St. Thomas School of Law. My
sincere appreciation to Liz Richards for alerting me to this topic; Professor Robert
Kahn for his guidance throughout the writing process; the Gender Fairness
Implementation Committee and Law and Inequality: A Journal of Theory and
Practice for launching my article into the public arena; and my husband-to-be, Kyle
Johansen, for his boundless love and support throughout my every endeavor.
1. Demosthenes Lorandos, Parental Alienation Syndrome: Detractors and the
Junk Science Vacuum, in THE INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK OF PARENTAL
ALIENATION SYNDROME 403 (Richard A. Gardner et al. eds., 2006); see also infra
notes 14-17 and accompanying text.
2. Richard A. Gardner, Introduction to THE INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK OF
PARENTAL ALIENATION SYNDROME, supra note 1, at 10 tbl.1.3 [hereinafter Gardner,
Introduction]. In this Article, the parent who coaches the child in his or her
campaign against the other parent is the alienating parent and the object of the
child's campaign is the alienated parent. In other materials, the alienated parent
is sometimes referenced as the victim parent, but I reserve that term to refer to
the victim parent in the domestic abuse context.
3. See, e.g., Geske v. Marcolina, 642 N.W.2d 62, 65 (Minn. Ct. App. 2002)
(Due to Marcolina's abusive, intimidating and controlling behavior, his visitation
rights were suspended in February 2000.).
4. See infra Part II.C.
5. See infra Part III.B.
6. Barry Brody, Criticism of PAS in Courts of Law: How to Deal with It and
Why It Occurs, in THE INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK OF PARENTAL ALIENATION
SYNDROME, supra note 1, at 372-77.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/lieq29&div=5&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Parental Alienation Analysis, Domestic Violence, and Gender Bias in Minnesota Courts
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