Alienation vs. Estrangement - by J Michael Bone, PhD - Parental Alienation

 Alienation vs Estrangement in Parental Alienation.

When a child is resistant to seeing a parent, the reasons can be reduced to two basic phenomena: alienation or estrangement. Within the professional community, these two words have been used interchangeably by various authors over the years. In an effort to reduce confusion that this usage may have caused, there is a growing acceptance of how these two words should be properly used.
First, "Alienation" refers to a child's resistance or refusal to see a once loved parent, typically within the context of divorce or post divorce. Alienated children are told distorted and untrue things about their once loved parent, which cause them to mistrust and become alienated from them. The key is that it is not that parent's actions that cause this alienation reaction, but rather it is the influence of the other parent in imparting this, that is the cause.
In the case of "Estrangement" it is that parent's own actions that have caused the child to not want to be with that parent. For example a child might become eventually estranged from a parent because that parent is neglectful or abusive, which would mean that this parent's own neglectful or abusive behavior that has caused that child to be resistant to seeing them. #parentalalienation

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