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Putting Science and Reasoning Back Into the “Parental Alienation” Discussion: Reply to Bernet, Robb, Lorandos, and Garber
Author(s) -
Milchman Madelyn S.,
Geffner Robert,
Meier Joan S.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
family court review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.171
H-Index - 4
eISSN - 1744-1617
pISSN - 1531-2445
DOI - 10.1111/fcre.12477
Subject(s) - dialog box , alienation , rhetoric , epistemology , psychology , principal (computer security) , phenomenon , inference , sociology , social psychology , law , political science , computer science , philosophy , linguistics , world wide web , operating system
This article presents our Reply to the Responses that Lorandos, Garber, Bernet, and Robb wrote to our Critique article in the Family Court Review Special Issue . Our Reply focuses on the repetition of the rhetoric that some of these authors used to distract from the issues we raised. The principal concern in our Critique article was the lack of adequate research methodology to support claims that parental alienation is a diagnosis, a condition, or a phenomenon that is directly observable rather than an inference that requires detailed behavioral descriptions, factual analysis, logical and scientific reasoning. In our Reply , we show how this concern was not properly addressed in the Responses , which does not facilitate meaningful dialog. However, we also recognize that some of the Responses facilitate improved dialog between the parental alienation and child abuse/domestic violence communities and we welcome that.