Parental alienation: understand it, spot it, act on it

A legally and scientifically debated concept

This is the most important point to understand, and the one most often left out: the “parental alienation syndrome” (PAS), theorized in the 1970s by American child psychiatrist Richard Gardner, has no medical consensus and is not included in the World Health Organization’s international classification of diseases.

A March 2018 circular from the French Ministry of Justice, confirmed by a ministerial response dated December 12, 2024, warns French magistrates about the “particularly controversial” nature of this concept and invites them to prefer notions such as loyalty conflict, parental conflict, or coercive control (emprise). Several French courts of appeal (Caen, Lyon, Versailles, Bordeaux) have moreover dismissed PAS as “devoid of scientific value.”

This caution is not incidental: the European Parliament, in its resolution of October 6, 2021 on domestic violence and custody rights, urged member states not to recognize PAS in their law or judicial practice — the WHO and the American Psychological Association rejecting this concept in part because it has been used to discredit parents, most often mothers, who limited contact with the other parent in order to protect a child from real violence.

The reality commonly grouped under the term of parental alienation does exist, then, but it requires a cautious, individualized diagnosis, established by professionals — never an automatic or one-sided assessment.

What to do? Legal remedies available in France

Several steps exist, ideally with the help of a family law attorney:

• Apply to the Juge aux Affaires Familiales (JAF), France’s family court judge, to request a review of custody or residence arrangements.
• Request a family medico-psychological expert assessment, ordered by the judge, to establish an objective picture of the situation.
• Turn to family mediation, a structured process that can sometimes defuse the conflict before it becomes entrenched.
• If the child is in danger, apply to the juge des enfants (children’s court judge).
• In the event of a repeated and unjustified refusal to hand over the child, file a criminal complaint for “non-représentation d’enfant” (failure to produce a child, Article 227-5 of the French Criminal Code — punishable by up to one year’s imprisonment and a €15,000 fine, even though the prison sentence is rarely applied in practice). According to Le Club des Juristes, around 750 convictions per year were handed down for this offense between 2014 and 2023, in nearly 80% of cases against mothers.
• Keep records (written exchanges, statements from relatives or professionals): in this type of case, the burden of proof largely rests on factual elements gathered over time.