SUMMARIES
Summary
Introductory Review: Das Parental Alienation Syndrome -
Past, Present and FutureHow Denying and Discrediting the Parental Alienation Syndrome Harms Women
R. A. Gardner M.D.
For his keynote presentation, professor Gardner will review the evolution of his experiences with PAS from the time he first began seeing the disorder in the early 1980s to the present. He will then talk about the work that still has to be done in the future, especially with regard to what we can do to help PAS children and the parents who have been victimized by a spouse's PAS indoctrinations.
In his second presentation, he will talk about how PAS should not be a gender issue because, with increasing frequency, women are also becoming its victims. In spite of this, many feminists are turning their backs on these women and continuing to deny--even to them--that PAS exists.
At every opportunity, he will ask this question: PAS is a widespread phenomenon. Every divorce lawyer and every mental health professional who works with people involved in litigated custody disputes sees it. Why are so many denying it so vehemently and even viciously? To deny PAS is like denying the existence of AIDS. Of course, Dr Gardner has some ideas of his own on this important question, but he still feels that there is more he can learn regarding this amazing denial of PAS, a denial that is so destructive to so many thousands of people.
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