Narcissistic Parental Alienation syndrome refers to the process of psychological manipulation of a child by a parent to show fear, disrespect, or hostility towards the other parent. Very often, the child can't provide logical reasoning for the difference in their behaviour towards both parents.
Toxic parents create a negative and toxic home environment. They use fear, guilt, and humiliation as tools to get what they want and ensure compliance from their children. They are often neglectful, emotionally unavailable, and abusive in some cases. They put their own needs before the needs of their children.
In most cases, parental alienation backfires, with the child struggling with feelings of loss and resentment towards both parents. Removing the other parent from their life causes the child to feel isolated and neglected, instilling feelings of insecurity.
Gaslighting is especially common in cases involving parental alienation, but it can be used in plenty of other situations as well.
Parental alienation syndrome is a psychological condition that a child suffers when one parent takes steps toward destroying the other parent's relationship with their child. The alienating parent manipulates the child's point of view about the other parent through deceptive tactics.
A narcissistic mother may feel entitled or self-important, seek admiration from others, believe she is above others, lack empathy, exploit her children, put others down, experience hypersensitivity to criticism, believe she deserves special treatment, and worst of all, maybe naïve to the damage she is causing.
Collect witness accounts.
Request that they write a “witness statement” that outlines what they experienced and that they sign it to confirm that it's true. Witnesses may not know you well, but they're important for a court case because they provide first-hand details about how a narcissist disrespected you.
Narcissistic parents maintain their power by triangulating, or playing favorites. They may have a golden child who they compliment excessively, for example, while speaking badly about another child in the family. This can make children feel uncomfortable, disloyal and psychologically unsafe.
While these professionals are historically skilled at identifying physical child abuse, they are beginning to identify a more insidious form of emotional child abuse called parental alienation. When this form of abuse is correctly and timely identified, custody evaluators can recommend specific strategies for success.
Key points. Parental alienation is when one parent (usually the custodial parent) negatively influences the child's perception of the “target parent.” Target parents may experience both emotional (e.g., fear, guilt) and physical (e.g., nightmares, illness) responses to the alienation.
Parental alienation has been defined by some as a serious mental condition in children exposed to parental alienating behaviours [1,2].
A gaslighting parent consistently denies or disputes a child's experiences or feelings, making the child doubt their recollection so that they can escape responsibility for their actions1.
Presently, the term 'parental alienation' is not recognised or referred to in Family Law Act 1975 (Cth). However, the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia has made reference to and made appropriate orders in cases involving parental alienation. Currently, parental alienation is not in itself a crime.
Narcissistic parental alienation syndrome occurs when a parent with narcissistic traits attempts to maliciously alienate their child from an otherwise loving parent. This is often accomplished by attacking the other parent's character in front of the child.
Parental alienation does not protect a child's interests—it places them in peril. When a parent's behavior threatens not only your well-being, but also your child's, it is worth doing everything in your power to fight back. If your ex is engaging in such tactics, you should explore every legal option at your disposal.
The most common toxic behavior of parents is to criticize their child, express self-wishes, complain about the difficulties of raising a child, make unhealthy comparisons, and make hurtful statements1.
Authoritarian Parenting
Mistakes usually lead to punishment. Authoritarian parents are normally less nurturing and have high expectations with limited flexibility. Children that grow up with authoritarian parents will usually be the most well-behaved in the room because of the consequences of misbehaving.