ABSTRACT
This chapter presents Brazilian legislation on Parental Alienation (PA) discussing controversies associated with this terminology. After an introduction of Brazil’s cultural context regarding gender roles, a historical description of the constructs Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) and PA is given. Proposed by the psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Richard Gardner in the 1980s, PAS is defined as a disorder occurring during childhood whose first manifestation is a defamatory campaign by the child against the target parent without justification. Due to non-rigorous methodology, inappropriate generalizations and bias towards women, PAS was much criticized by the scientific community and never introduced in DSM or ICD Manuals. Although there is no commonly accepted definition of PA, the authors define it as consistent hostile behaviors from a family member (most often the alienating parent) towards another member (the alienated or target parent) involving the child in such conflict. Unlike PAS, PA does not claim that the child suffers from a mental health disorder, considering it a modality of emotional abuse. The Brazilian PA law is summarized along with a review of Brazilian and international literature on PA, showing inconsistencies in what the country’s legislation precludes regarding assessment and intervention/treatment due to insufficient knowledge associated with the PA construct. As psychological violence, accepting PA does not disclaim or minimize the impact and frequency of child sexual abuse, as Gardner proposed. On the contrary, the authors defend that child sexual abuse and physical abuse have to be ruled out before raising the possibility of PA.
