It would be called SAP, or Parental Alienation Syndrome. But behind a scary name hides a decades-long scientific controversy and the subject is still divisive on social media. On TikTok, a new viral video sheds light on the subject through a column broadcast on the set of “Magazine de la santé”, on France 5. On June 6, 2019, lawyer Brigitte Bogucki returned to the definition of the term. “It’s a kind of brutal parental break”, “a sudden rejection of a parent by a child”, “a complete cut”. This would result in the estrangement of the child who would cut ties with one of his parents under the yoke of the second parent.
The concept was born in the mid-1980s in the United States. Its author, the psychiatrist Richard Gardner defines it as a “childhood disorder” which would be justified by “an unjustified campaign of denigration, led by the child against a parent”. In addition to his books written on the subject, the psychiatrist had his own practice and helped families in the middle of a divorce. Only, most of the time, only the fathers were defended.
According to the psychiatrist, the accusations, for example, of sexual violence against the child are invented by the mother and it would be a question of manipulation. In France, it was the expert psychiatrist Paul Bensussan who seized on the notion in the 1990s, particularly during the media coverage of the Outreau affair.
Situations of domestic violence and incest
In fact, in recent years, the so-called “parental alienation” syndrome has been questioned many times by the scientific community. In 2019, on the occasion of a question posed by MP Charlotte Parmentier-Lecocq to the National Assemblythe secretary to the Minister of Solidarity and Health recalled that the “parental alienation syndrome” was not the subject of any medical consensus.
Recently, sociology researcher Pierre-Guillaume Prigent and sociology doctoral student Gwénola Sueur devoted a book to this subject in “Alienating” mothers or violent fathers? published by Empan. Through several interviews with mothers accused of parental alienation, the researchers sought to understand the context of the allegation.
A mostly implicit notion
First hypothesis: the women interviewed are possibly victims of domestic violence. Second hypothesis: the accusations of “parental alienation” are not necessarily explicit, but also implicit. During the past twenty interviews, the researchers also observe a context of incestuous sexual violence. “We identify in the women’s stories the tactics of the aggressor: isolation, control, intimidation, violence”, describes Gwénola Sueur.
However, today, justice continues to use this notion of “parental alienation” in divorce cases. “The concept has no scientific basis, however the courts still use it”, criticizes Pierre-Guillaume Prigent. If the accusation can be explicit and used by experts, social workers and then validated by judges, most of the time, it remains implicit. The behavior of the mother would be targeted mainly: she would be too fusional or she would seek to exclude the father from the life of the child. And the consequences are heavy with sometimes the restriction of the rights of the mother vis-à-vis the child.
“We are facing a myth”
However, a change in the use of this term seems to be taking place. The former Minister of Justice Nicole Belloubet affirmed – still during a written question to the National Assembly – that the taking into account of the alleged SAP in the judgments rendered by the judges for children led “to discrediting the word of the mother, exceptionally of the father or the child, and consequently to deny the status of victim by reversing the responsibilities”. Subsequently, a note was published to inform the magistrates of its controversial nature and encouraged them “to look with caution at this means when it is raised in defense and remind them that other tools are at their disposal in civil matters”. .
On the side of the World Health Organization (WHO), the syndrome had been integrated into the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (CIM-11) to finally be withdrawn a year later.
But is this recognition enough? “As long as the notion is used implicitly, the change is going to be complicated. The idea is still there that the mother manipulates the children. We are faced with a myth”, regrets Gwénola Sueur who sees a notion “in essence anti-feminist, even misogynistic”. Thus, the training of magistrates but also of the police in these questions remains a major axis of improvement for the coming years in France.