What about DSM-5 and parental alienation?
Parental alienation and parental alienation syndrome were both proposed for inclusion in DSM-5 and rejected — first in 2013, then again for the DSM-5-TR revision in 2022. The strongest evidence: in September 2023, the Parental Alienation Study Group petitioned the American Psychiatric Association to change one word in an existing code, “Parent–Child Relational Problem,” from “estrangement” to “alienation.” A group doesn’t petition to add a word that’s already there.
The DSM-5, published by the American Psychiatric Association in 2013, includes five diagnoses that describe different aspects of parental alienation without naming it:
- Parent–child relational problem (p. 715)
- Child affected by parental relationship distress (p. 716) — a new diagnosis in DSM-5
- Child psychological abuse (p. 719) — another new diagnosis in DSM-5
- Delusional symptoms in partner of individual with delusional disorder (p. 122), formerly folie à deux
- Factitious disorder imposed on another (p. 325), formerly Munchausen syndrome by proxy
Sources
[peer-reviewed study] Bernet, W., Wamboldt, M. Z., Narrow, W. (2016). Child Affected by Parental Relationship Distress. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 55:571–579.
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Parental alienation is not a medical or psychiatric diagnosis. What is recognised is that some parents behave in ways that damage a child’s relationship with their other parent, and that this can seriously harm children — and equally, that a child may refuse contact for good reasons, including abuse. Nothing here is a diagnosis or legal advice. What this site does and doesn’t claim.