Opinion

In Greek mythology Echo was a wood nymph who loved a youth by the name of Narcissus. He was a beautiful creature loved by many but Narcissus loved no one. He enjoyed attention, praise and envy. In Narcissus’ eyes nobody matched him and as such he considered none were worthy of him. Echo’s passion for …

In December 2024 the Family Justice Council released it’s guidelines on “alienating behaviours”1. It is great that the guidelines accept that the dynamic in which one parent psychologically controls/manipulates their child to reject a parent exists. Any Psychologist who has experience of working with families who are trained and are knowledgeable in personality disorders, attachment, …

TRIGGER WARNING: This article contains details of horrific child abuse which may cause distress. We recommend you do not read this if you are vulnerable. Sara Sharif was a 10-year-old child who had been subjected to years of horrific physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her father and stepmother. She died on the …

In Why Right to Love Doesn’t Use the Term “Parental alienation”, it was highlighted that the UK Association of Clinical Psychologists (ACP) and the British Psychological Society (BPS) advise that “parental alienation” cannot be diagnosed. They didn’t, however, state what could be diagnosed and this has left traumatised families with a lot of unanswered questions. …

There is a factor in some intact families that causes harm, can lead to family breakdown and post-separation abuse. That factor is the existence of a parent with a severely maladaptive attachment strategy. This includes parents with narcissistic/borderline personality disorder. Only a person who has significant difficulty with information processing, with reduced ability to mentalise …