More on Craig Childress: A Reader Comment and Responses

For reasons unknown to me, this reader comment disappeared from my blogspot page twice when I tried to post it. Because it is a thoughtful and civil statement, I am posting it here--  but since I must still query Childress’ claims, I will follow it with some further comments of my own. Here is the reader’s comment:

“Dear Ms Mercer, I am a parent whose children are living through the profound trauma and dysfunction of parental alienation. I have read quite widely on the subject during the year since our nightmare began. Having encountered Childress' work in the last couple of months, my judgement is that, while it does not provide an answer to every question one can ask, it has taken the theoretical understanding and conceptualisation of parental alienation forwards in huge strides. I think that his work might be looked back on in years to come as ‘game-changing’.

His blog posts are indeed, on occasion, somewhat abrasive towards others in the field of mental health. However, aside from the fact that given the persistent failure of mental health to respond at all effectively to this desperate problem his blunt criticisms might well be considered justified, I suspect that he is deliberately seeking to provoke in order to stimulate debate, raise awareness, project his work into the mainstream discourse - all of which will lead to more work by others on this subject.

I wonder if your slightly snarky initial response to his work might at least in part a reaction to his manner, and that your response to his style might be colouring your response to his substance. As an informed lay person who has read every document on his website, part of his book ‘Foundations’, and viewed every Youtube video he has posted, I can only say that I have found his work to be illuminating, clearly articulated, persuasive and coherent.

The experience of rejected parents has been described as a ‘living bereavement’ and this resonates deeply for me. Work exploring the experience of adult ‘survivors’ of childhood parental alienation (e.g. by Amy Baker), attests to the serious, lifelong effects of parental alienation on child victims. Yet, your post is not imbued with any apparent empathy for the heart-breaking plight of children and parents whose loving relationships are utterly destroyed by parental alienation. That would be welcome in any further blog posts you might publish on the subject.

I note Childress responded to your post on his blog and invited further discussion. I do hope you take up this offer.

Thank you.

P.S. Childress works at the University of Phoenix. He was invited to present lectures by California Southern University. “

It is certainly true that Childress’ Facebook remarks set my teeth on edge. Professional discourse does not usually include statements about the ignorance of those who disagree with one. In addition, I am concerned about the proliferation of references to “attachment” and “trauma” as if these factors can be worked into explanations of every human outcome. As a developmental psychologist, I am very much aware of the potential confounding of variables that can lead to wrong answers to apparently simple questions. As a student of and author on attachment issues, I am also aware of the possibility that claims about attachment may just reflect the fact that “good things go together” in development.

The commenter rather gently chides me for an apparent lack of empathy for families embroiled in the rejection of one parent by one or more children. I am sorry to have given this impression, as I am sure I would have gone through hell and high water to keep in contact with my children if they had been separated from me.

But, strange as it may seem to some readers, it is my real concern for children that has led me to query statements by various mental health practitioners about the effectiveness of treatments they offer. In a series of articles in the journal Research on Social Work Practice, I recently evaluated the plausibility of and empirical evidence for several psychotherapies for children. In my 2014 book, Alternative psychotherapies (Rowman & Littlefield), I did the same for a variety of mental health and educational interventions that make strong claims without real justification.

Some of the treatments I have evaluated are potentially directly harmful and have already injured and killed a small number of children (I am far from suggesting that this is an issue for Childress’ methods, please note!). Others are indirectly harmful, in that they take time and family resources without having a positive effect, and in that they may interfere with the seeking of more effective treatments.

I believe that this work, although not experienced as warm or supportive by families in trouble, can in fact be very beneficial to them by pointing out possible realities of offered interventions that may be presented in an attractive way but that are not likely to be of genuine help. Most psychologists are uneasy about asking pointed questions about practitioners’ theories and methods. I am not--  I was broken in on this by my investigation of the death of Candace Newmaker at the hands of “attachment therapists” (see Mercer, Sarner, & Rosa, Attachment therapy on trial. Praeger, 2003).

I hope that the author of the comment quoted above will see my position here. I have been commenting on Childress’ blog, where I am asking him to fill me in on a couple of points: What would be the earliest age at which he would think the issues he addresses would emerge? What is the age of the youngest child he has treated? How does he ascertain whether a rejecting child actually has been abused or frightened by the rejected parent? In what proportion of cases, in his experience, has a case brought to him as a matter of parental alienation actually turned out to turn on abusive behavior? These seem to me to be simple but important questions, and I am hoping for some simple answers.