A 2008 Report From The NH Commision For The Status Of Men About Parental Alienation Syndrome

The Following is directly off of the 2008 report from the NH Commission For The Status of Men posted on the State's website.

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Parental Alienation Syndrome

During its February 2007 meeting, the Commission invited Dr. Stevan Gressit to talk about issues related to Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS). Parental Alienation Syndrome is defined by Dr. Richard Gardner as

“a disorder that arises primarily in the context of child-custody disputes. Its primary manifestation is the child's campaign of denigration against a parent, a campaign that has no justification. It results from the combination of a programming (brainwashing) parent's indoctrinations and the child's own contributions to the vilification of the target parent."

Dr. Gressit is a psychiatrist from Maine and a former staff member of the Women's Prison of NH. Dr. Gressit stated that in his professional work, he has seen many cases of parental alienation, which seem to be most often directed against fathers. This alienation frequently involves visitation interference against fathers, and he is concerned that the family court system is not sufficiently recognizing the need for both parents in children's lives.

Dr. Gressit described that he has seen in his practice children of divorced or separated parents who are learning the lesson that court orders are not consistently enforced in family courts. The lesson that the court's orders are not respected is then internalized and applied in the context of criminal courts when the child is older and getting involved in criminal behavior. Dr. Gressit does not believe that anyone in law enforcement, in New Hampshire or Maine, has ever enforced visitation orders, and this has made the flaunting of these orders commonplace. In light of this assertion, the Commission recommends that the legislature request that the court system report on methods and outcomes of efforts to enforce visitation orders in New Hampshire.

In his practice, Dr. Gressit also noted that he has seen many custodial mothers move from New Hampshire to Maine in order to move their children away from their fathers - a component of parental alienation. He has been involved with the first legislative effort in Maine to deal specifically with Parental Alienation Syndrome, and consulted with New Hampshire DHHS Commissioner John Stephen to promote legislation (HB 1585) that would address enforcement of parenting time violations.

Dr. Gressit noted that his caseload has an over-representation of children from single parent homes who are having problems because of a poor or non-existent relationship with the other parent, usually the father. He believes that a child who has two parents with differing rules and disciplining approaches is generally significantly better off than a child who is cut off from a parent by way of parental alienation.

Dr. Gressit has compiled numerous reports and research related to parental alienation, which can be found on the Commission's web site in a compressed archive form at http://www.nh.gov/csm/pas_gressitt.html.
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I will be posting some information on Dr. Gressit in the near future.  He has a strong knowledge of PAS and the effects on children.