Mental health articles

False Allegations of Mental Illness and Undiagnosed Mental Illness
Many people believe the myth that mothers make many false allegations of abuse against fathers. However, studies tend to show that
fathers more often make false allegations of abuse against mothers rather than vice versa . Often if a mother claims the child’s father abused
her, the father will claim that she is “crazy.” In a study of mothers who alleged the fathers abused their children, but where the fathers alleged the mothers were “crazy,” investigation revealed that all the fathers were abusive to the mothers.
The attorney of a parent against whom false allegations of mental illness are lodged should strenuously object to a mental health evaluation of that parent, especially without a mental health evaluation of the other parent. Such an evaluation would be a mere “fishing expedition.” Typical allegations of mental illness lodged against mothers are allegations of borderline personality disorder, hysteria, paranoia, and bipolar disorder. A parent who alleges that the other parent has a mental disorder should be required to provide evidence of specific behaviors of the
parent that are symptoms of such disorders. Even if the accusing parent lies and falsely describes behaviors that appear to be symptoms of these disorders, a competent mental health expert should be able to provide evidence that the mother is not mentally ill.
Other typical allegations are so-called “parental alienation syndrome”/“parental alienation,” “enmeshment” or “folie a deux,” and Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy. These require more discussion, because they are either nonexistent or extremely rare.
“Parental Alienation Syndrome” (PAS) is not a valid mental health diagnosis. It is a false diagnosis made up by the late Richard Gardner, who claimed that parents (especially mothers) going through divorce often brainwash their children against the other parent. Advocates of PAS attempted to have it included in the DSM-5. They renamed it “parental alienation disorder” (PAD), defined as follows: “a mental condition in which a child, usually one whose parents are engaged in a high conflict divorce, allies himself or herself strongly with one parent, and rejects a relationship with the other parent, without legitimate justification.”
The PAS advocates were not successful. The American
Psychiatric Association announced in 2012 that four alleged disorders—including PAS—were not accepted for inclusion in either the section of the DSM-5 dealing with conditions that are accepted as categorical diagnoses or the section of the DSM-5 dealing with “conditions that require further research before their consideration as formal disorders” . In other words, PAS/PAD is not even worth further discussion.

Tags: Illness, mental, mental illness