Narcissistic Parental Alienation syndrome refers to the process of psychological manipulation of a child by a parent to show fear, disrespect, or hostility towards the other parent. Very often, the child can't provide logical reasoning for the difference in their behaviour towards both parents.
“You are overreacting.” “No one will ever love you with that attitude.” “You have an awful personality and can never do anything right.” “Everyone agrees that you're probably the worst person to go out with.”
According to Psychology Today, parental alienation primarily is considered to be an attachment-based trauma, where instead of serving the psychological and emotional needs of the child by providing stability, alienating parents use their child to meet their own needs.
In most cases, parental alienation backfires, with the child struggling with feelings of loss and resentment towards both parents. Removing the other parent from their life causes the child to feel isolated and neglected, instilling feelings of insecurity.
Parental alienation syndrome is a psychological condition that a child suffers when one parent takes steps toward destroying the other parent's relationship with their child. The alienating parent manipulates the child's point of view about the other parent through deceptive tactics.
The first aspect of alienation is alienation from the product of labour. In capitalist society, that which is produced, the objectification of labour, is lost to the producer. In Marx's words, “objectification becomes the loss of the object”.
Anger, guilt, grief, disconnection, and low self-esteem.
Parental alienation is a form of child abuse that we are only beginning to recognize. Technically speaking, it's when a child aligns with one parent and rejects its other parent for reasons that are not warranted.
Narcissistic parents maintain their power by triangulating, or playing favorites. They may have a golden child who they compliment excessively, for example, while speaking badly about another child in the family. This can make children feel uncomfortable, disloyal and psychologically unsafe.
Gaslighting is especially common in cases involving parental alienation, but it can be used in plenty of other situations as well.
While these professionals are historically skilled at identifying physical child abuse, they are beginning to identify a more insidious form of emotional child abuse called parental alienation. When this form of abuse is correctly and timely identified, custody evaluators can recommend specific strategies for success.
Parental Alienation Australia
Parental alienation is the term used to describe when one parent deliberately damages the relationship between the other parent and their child. Most psychologists and legal professionals have been aware of parental alienation for a long time. Proving parental alienation can be difficult.
This can lead to an increased vulnerability to mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, eating and feeding disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other psychosomatic disorders [15]. These difficulties can persist even when alienated children reunite with the targeted parent [16].
An obsessive parental alienator is actively working to alienate their child from the other parent. Their purpose is to alienate their child from the other parent and destroy their relationship.
Examples of coercive controlling behaviour used by alienating parents against their children: Pressure the child to feel allegiance/loyalty to them. Pressure/reward the child to reject the targeted parent. Make the child afraid of the targeted parent in the absence of a real threat.
What is narcissistic rage? When a narcissistic parent explodes in rage at her child, she seeks to destroy and ask questions later. Children who suffered bouts of narcissistic rage from a parent often describe feeling hated by the parent.
A narcissistic parent will often abuse the normal parental role of guiding their children and being the primary decision maker in the child's life, becoming overly possessive and controlling. This possessiveness and excessive control disempowers the child; the parent sees the child simply as an extension of themselves.
A narcissistic mother may feel entitled or self-important, seek admiration from others, believe she is above others, lack empathy, exploit her children, put others down, experience hypersensitivity to criticism, believe she deserves special treatment, and worst of all, maybe naïve to the damage she is causing.