ABSTRACT
This chapter starts the section devoted to introducing and understanding the members of an alienated family. In this chapter, alienating parents are considered. The chapter looks at whether all alienating parents share the same characteristics or whether alienating parents are better understood as being motivated by a range of factors that might manifest in similar tactics being used. The characteristics of alienating parents are discussed. These include factors such as personality traits, the tendency to externalise responsibility, an abnormal grief reaction to the loss of the marital relationship, problems with their families of origin, the need to deflect attention away from their own problems and onto the targeted parent, problematic relationship histories, the desire for control and the need for revenge.
