A review of the book "Adult Children Of Parental Alienation Syndrome", available from Amazon.com.


Adult Children Of Parental Alienation Syndrome: Breaking The Ties That Bind, by Amy J.L. Baker, Ph.D. is the only book available that presents an insightful view of parental alienation from the perspective of the child victims.

Based on interviews with 40 adults who were turned against one parent by the other when they were children, this book explores many important aspects of parental alienation and parental alienation syndrome, including the different family contexts within which alienation can occur, alienation from the perspective of parent-child attachment, comparisons of alienating parents and cult leaders, alienation as a form of emotional abuse, as well as the long-term effects of alienation.

At the heart of the book are the stories of the realization process whereby these individuals came to understand that when they were children they psychologically turned against one parent in order to appease the other.

These stories identify 11 different catalysts to having such a realization that parental alienation took place. The final three chapters of the book explore implications of this research for clinicians working with adult children of parental alienation syndrome, currently alienated children, and targeted parents. The book was written for both parents and professionals and maintains the proper balance between scholarly research and heartfelt and accessible information for people currently experiencing parental alienation.

The book also debunks several widely held myths about parental alienation, including that it only happens to fathers by mothers, that it only happens in divorced families, and it is only perpetrated by custodial parents.

The information provided in this book should move the field forward and provide parents as well as professionals with much needed hope and insight about the felt experience of parental alienation. We highly recommend it.

Based on the information presented, we rate the book "Adult Children Of Parental Alienation Syndrome as a 5-star resource (on a scale of 1 to 5).