Stripped of Custody and Visitation Rights
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Katherine Andrews, a mother of two, was awarded custody of her children at the time of her divorce. Her ex-husband later sued and became primary custodian of the children after a court ruled he could better provide for them because he earned more money.
Two years later, however, both of Katherine’s children reported sexual abuse by their father, spurring the mother to take steps to regain custody, and to seek justice against the ex-husband.
Katherine first documented what her children said. She had them talk to the authorities and went through the proper legal channels to report the abuse. Both law enforcement officers and Child Protective Services officials substantiated the children’s claims. With facts in hand, Katherine then attempted to gain custody and to have her ex-husband brought to justice.
The court appointed a mental health “expert,” Ann Friemel, to determine whether the ex-husband was guilty of child molestation. The ex-husband paid for this “evaluation,” which relied on the theories of psychiatrist Gardner.
Ignoring evidence of sexual abuse, Friemel dismissed the idea of child molestation and claimed that Katherine suffered from “parental alienation syndrome.” As a result of this labeling, Katherine was prevented from presenting to the court the evidence of sexual abuse she had so carefully collected and was stripped of all custody and visitation rights permanently.
“No One Is Listening”
H. Joan Pennington, executive director of the National Center for Protective Parents, dismisses this new psychiatric label and condemns the lose-either-way situation in which it places mothers.
“In reality,” she says, “what mothers are evincing is a normal reaction to a horrible event: first, disbelief; then, anger; and then a demand for accountability. But no one is listening. No matter how a mother responds to hearing that a person she loved and trusted has violated their child, she will be blamed in some way for having done something wrong.
“If she believes her child but cannot prove the abuse in court, she will be punished by losing custody. If it is found that the child was molested and the mother did not take action, she will lose custody because of her failure to protect the child, which is actionable under child welfare law.”
The label is the latest in an ever-growing pile of psychiatric tags that can be placed on virtually anyone.
Indeed, browsing through psychiatry’s bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), could convince anyone that any problem in life is nothing more than a mental illness. If a child has trouble with figures, he’s got mental illness number 315.1 – “Mathematics Disorder.” If he wrote a bad essay for English class, according to the psychiatrists, he suffers from 315.2 – “Disorder of Written Expression.” If he doesn’t read as well as his classmates, it’s 315 – “Reading Disorder.”
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