MEMORIES IN A DARK NIGHT
Coffee is a pseudo religious experience for those who appreciate it. Even instant coffee can have euphoric effects if imbued under maintained self prescribed levels. Caffeine and its psychoactive propriety towards conversation are legendary. I wanted to have a special coffee, at the coffee store near where I live. So once there and with the cup of desired elixir in my hand I took a seat with a lady I met in passing from a previous well intentioned outing. ‘Hello Donna, mind if I join you?’ she beckoned acquiescence and began to tell me her daily planned scheduled roster. The last item was talk to her lawyer, ‘I got to make sure I am home for his call.’ Coffee, coursing it’s intellectually “symbiant” form through my veins caused me to ask simple why?
She is finally of great hope that she will get full custody of her 13 year old son. It has been a hellish ride for her. This maternal victory is a great inspiration for her. Which is great, I mean I totally agree, however, when she trailed words of the father participation and I heard the ‘brainwashing him (son)’, I kind of perked my inner ear up. I have heard that before. She took her leave and my mind was racing to events in my past, this need I had when I was younger at 30 to write a story. I felt I had to convey back then. It was something and an awareness I never really acquitted. The remainder of that caffeine effervescence was spent isolating the fiction from the truth back in those days.
That night, I was remembering phantasms of old days. The two old lovers of mine that I would spend hours listening to when they would relate their trauma of the exe boyfriend and their incurring abuse regarding the children that the union of those two adults had been awarded. Grace is an unmerited gift, to some, and grace sometimes comes hidden amongst angst and trial. The next morning I informed Donna that I intend to write a story that I have wanted to write for a very long time. That if she would participate, I think I can pull this off. She wholeheartedly agreed and I set off on this journey with voice voices and my willingness to listen.
MEDIUM HAWIAN PLUS OLD ROCK, DASH OF REMINISCING
A few days went by and I went to see Donna. We ordered a pizza and she put on a classic rock station. The day was cloudy but patches of blue shone through. It was time. Donna ate a slice and sat on the couch across from me. Relaxed and began her story.
Her son’s father was a heavy substance abuser. The way of life previous to the breakup was therefore highly erratic. He did however manage to keep a roof and food in the fridge for them. Concerns such as drinking and driving were common plagues of her mind every time he went out with their son. The fear of never knowing what would happen, compounded by the natural parental need to protect their child caused a obsessive fear alone. There was one episode of physical abuse, witnessed by the son and verbal abuse carried from the start to well beyond the separation. Even with a daily life raked with the chaotic nature of a practicing substance abuser, she still strung on to the security of the family unit. The breakup came from his desire to expand on his joyride lifestyle.
The Stones played Jumping jack flash, while I watched the steamy mozzarella stretch, I asked ‘Did you ever bring this up to the court?’
‘Once he even admitted to her lawyer that he was a drug and alcohol abuser. It was the last court date. He was questioned by her lawyer outside as too why he didn’t pay the child and spousal support, equaling 2200 a month. He was negligent up to this court date. He used that as his excuse.’ Then she added, they wanted a criminal records check on each of us. She was fairly secure in this, as she had no record; in fact she was once an active worker in the security and surveillance industry. The exe who had a criminal record proved apparently non consequential towards the son at the age of 12 deciding that he wanted to go live with his father. She was wholly dependant on the exe for roof and food at time of separation, and he was practically non active towards raising the son. [The financial problem of one of the parents is fairly common in separations; the courts would take that into a serious account which is why I found it interesting that she initially had custody.]
(Six slices left, the Eagles were playing hotel California in the background.) When her son decided on his own elective at the age of 12 to go live with the father, is when the real problems that would be prevalent throughout the years of spousal separation would become an active part of her life. Donna explained that ‘she really had nothing against this, she figured that he may as well go and live there and get it over with now, instead of doing it later on in life’. [Concerns of the father’s lifestyle sponsored this]. In effect she felt that he would find out on his own.’ Her son began to exhibit violent reactivity to her and was beginning to be verbally abusive’. Each visit she claims was going downhill. She surmised that he was seeing the way the father was talking about her at the father’s residence and was transferring this to her. Of note is the fact that her son suffers from ADHD and a mild developmental delay.
Even know this diagnosis of her son is recent, it displays two factors about the situation that her son was in. The father as a substance abuser was in no way capable of effectively tending to their son’s special needs nor was he even compelled to try and find what out the problem with his son was. Adhd is a very obvious and extrovert disorder by way of behaviors displayed and would be kind of hard not to notice something is wrong. Donna even know she was living in separation and was at whim of whenever the father decided that the son should visit, still cared so much for the son , and what she witnessed in his behavior on the visitations, that she had the behavior looked at. She was taking him to a psychologist as far back as 3 or 4 years ago. when he was prescribed Ritalin she was not convinced that the diagnosis and the drug prescribed was helping the child, she went further and got more information and resulted in the diagnosis he has now.[Of note he was taking Benedryl, at the time of this writing. Which when I was younger I was prescribed for hyperactivity, when I told her this, she said ‘oh they gave him that for beestings.’]
(Wild thing faded out as I sipped a gulp of pop to chase the last of a crust and gestured to her to take the last slice.)’ her son was very sad when he realized to some degree how he was treating her. Donna wasn’t convinced that it was his true feelings and asked him to explain to her in his own writing. He produced a handwritten document disclosing an aggressive attempt by the father, where he was dictated by the father to countermand anything that would prove against or antagonist to the Donna’s attempt to raise her son in a social and moral manner. She related to me a quote where he informed that the father had deliberately told him not to go to school if she told him too and many things like that which in her summary was to ‘destroy her life’. Donna admitted to me that she had reached near suicidal thoughts as a result of the father’s commitment to vandalize her effect on her son as parental figure. Things are different now, her son is showing good improvement and she is highly confident that she is getting full custody. We sat and talked for awhile about nostalgia on the radio and I smiled to her and thanked her for letting me write her story. Pizza in belly and questions rebound in my head. I went home and tried to digest both as I listened to Vivaldi’s seasons.
CLEANING MY PLACE AND FINDING CHANGE
(I woke up this morning after a few days and realized my place was a disaster. It was a strangely logical form of chaos. Where the piles of papers and the forgotten artifacts of fancy were stationary but in some way sensible)
As I have said, I have heard the stories before from different voices and different actors in this unnerving drama of life. Almost always I was left with this feeling of why wasn’t anything done about it. I remember an exe lover of mine telling me virtual horror stories which unfortunately are referenced by my memory. I also have a male friend that I wish I could contact for a balance but he is hard to contact and I am not sure he would participate as memories are hard for some to revisit. in an attempt to achieve an objective view and to possibly draw a rational thread through the stuff that has been related to me. I began a search for a legal viewpoint. Since law is representative of our society. It surely has a vantage of objectivity. [This is where it gets interesting.]
(From the kitchen and the main room to the bedroom, I was seeking a systematic judgment on how to effectively begin cleaning.) The first thing that must be pointed out is there is an awareness that truly exists about this type of situation although it deals mostly with the initial custody disputes and the time within that event. There once was a man named Socrates who used the same methods of debate to find truth, in ancient Greece. When the sophists appeared, he was accused of being one of them. It resulted in his trial and ultimately his death. Sophists seek only to win the argument. Here is where the similarity of the task of the typical lawyer comes into play. They are required to effectively advocate for their client to the best of their ability in respect to the individual parents need. However, such zealous single motive seems to over look a serious condition or it turns out the prospective long term affect of what can potentially be wrong is overlooked. Although I wouldn’t be suspect of intentional wrongdoing, [even Socrates said no human intentionally does wrong.] I began to see this strange form of tennis match in my imagination. The two players are the parents, the net is the child and the referees were the court. The only time that it was a smoothly operating game was when both opponents play the game through. The net hardly ever gets hit. Only it looks like the net is constantly being hit by one player. Every time the volley from the opposition was sent, the one player would smack it straight into the net. The natural course of the game would be constantly stopped and constantly restarted. The refs would call foul or ‘in’ not understanding the desire of the one opponent trying to explain that the contestant was intentionally messing the flow of the game. The net was constantly being barraged and constantly soaking the intent of the non compliant player. What else can be said? The net soaks the violence and the meanness of the effort of the non compliant player. The ref can only pay attention to the players it seems and the focus is only on the damage of the net, when it strikes absolutely on the net.
In order for what I am about to refer too, to be admissible in court, the theory of psychology that would definitely encompass this must be recognized as a syndrome. I read a scathing dissention of a female activist in regards to the hopefully soon to be named disorder, which is really not accountable. see, I have a very close relative that suffers from a potentially life debilitating disorder and this relative has told me how even to this day its not recognized wholly. The beloved relative’s disorder is now known as multiple personality syndrome One year it was called a disorder the next it was a syndrome, the medical community as well of the psychological community accepts it then discards it. Yet, when I last checked I think it was declared a disorder. The one that pertains to this type of topic is called parental alienation syndrome.
DEFINITION AND CONCLUSION
The reader should know that I am by no way an authority on this subject; I am as you are someone that has and had questions. So, what I relate here is not intended to say that donna has or is suffering any of the stuff which I am about to disclose. Only, it can maybe explain the one pertinent question which I have wondered for years on end. Why wasn’t anything done about it? Well, it turns out that there was a man named R A Gardener that recognized some serious behavior traits identifiable with children of a select problematic separation. He noted the seemingly untoward assailment of the child towards a particular parent and realized there was a form of brainwashing happening. He was a highly skilled child psychologist and was certainly of credential to recognize this sad situation. He devised a theory regarding the effect of a parent that was enabling and enforcing the child to become an extension of his/her hate towards the other parent. "This emotional and psychological form of child abuse, whereby the child participates in the denigration campaign by lashing out at the targeted parent, developed a name for itself about 25 years ago and that acronym is PAS, standing for Parental Alienation Syndrome."
That quote was supplied by Dean Tong, whom I contacted during the writing in an attempt to find out why this type of thing can go on. His quote is right on the money too. I recognized it as a form of child abuse way before I was writing it. See, the premise of it being a form of child abuse is fairly simple to understand. First, you see, the child has every right to think of the other parent in equal and same terms as the other one. In fact it is a true right. I have thankfully read some court cases where at least one judge declared it an abuse. The child has the right, unequivocally to consider each parent as a verifiable and studious figure. When, there is one parent that is constantly denigrating (read that as constantly destroying the reputation) of the other parent. The child’s rights are being violated .this is a serious concept. I speculate that even worse can come from this type of involvement, such as, the teaching of the ability to exhibit hate freely to the world or target. Not a good practice.
Mr. Tong also supplied me with this insight, which may explain it a little better. “The case law that governs the admissibility of science and expert testimony in America is Frye or Daubert, the former requires the theory (PAS in this discussion) to be reliable, valid and "generally accepted by the entire scientific community." Obviously, because of its controversiality PAS has not met the legal standard in many states and as such is oft rejected by judges. In Canada, the legal standard is Mohan or Mohan Hearing. Although PA(S) is a legitimate form of emotional and psychological child abuse I have never witnessed one case where Child Protective Services (CAS in Canada) has removed a child from the alienator for same. Clearly, because most mothers are targeted as alienators and fathers recipients of said alienation, gender-laden "experts" offer confirmatory biased views against PA(S). It's ironic, too, because these same "experts" who talk down of PA(S) talk highly of Battered Women's Syndrome and try and ignore Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy (MSBP), or Factitious Disorder by Proxy (FDP) - Ostensibly, because like in cases of PA(S), many more mothers than fathers are guilty of committing FDP.”
His comment is not biased in the least. It deals with the fact that there is a bias that existed somewhat at one time, as a result of feminist movements in the 60’s and 70’s. Ironically before that time, males would be given custody, a tradition that apparently went as far back as early Greece. The feminists striving for equal rights (justifiably so) managed to dissolute that, so the rule of thumb was unwritten, but mother’s would most likely get custody. When this happened, the originator of the parental alienation syndrome had only a majority of females and little males to study as far as the prospectus of the disorder was concerned. See, it was just signs of the times. There were at his time more females with custody. That is the only significance for the female/male concept. However, this incredible gender war has been going on since the conception of the parent alienation syndrome.
We see adults fighting back and forth and a seemingly valid premise, stripped of gender but applicable in roles of custodian vs. non custodian parent seems lost. The courts both deny the possibility, while they wait to see if the dsv-II (a form that APA uses to designate disorders) is released in 2010 actually accounts for the parental alienation syndrome. Thing is, I am wondering why, even if it is not recognized ad pro, why, if the chance or remotely possibility exists, doesn’t the courts take it into account?
Why indeed. There is much to write and I can’t really effectively demonstrate the entire scope of this form of child abuse. So, I trust awareness is supplied to some, of you, so that you will go look it up. It was suggested by a friend that both parents don’t necessarily know how to be a good parents, she suggested that it should be mandatory that the two parents take classes after the separation. It should be part of the legal precedent in an effort to protect the child; it is definitely a good idea.
Recent Comments