Recent sociological research situates parental alienation as an alienating social
process in families, reflecting a broader alienating society. Such alienating social
processes use vilifying and stigmatising narratives to coerce children into excluding the
targeted parent and cancelling their identity while appearing to normalise such processes
in family culture and history. Parental alienation was first formulated in the 1980s at the
same time as profound changes in society, life, and work. These tectonic shifts changed
the family from a solid institutional structure to a fluid discourse about family
relationships and configurations. Situating parental alienation as an alienation discourse
abusing power in relational narratives responds to how the contemporary discursive
family is vulnerable to an alienating parent dominating the perception of reality
(“perspecticide”) and cancelling parents’ and children’s identity (“identicide”).
Formulating parental alienation as a social and political issue could lead to new
dialogues about the social and public health implications not addressed in the current
discourse about parental alienation as a psychological dysfunction and a legal dispute.
It may lead to de-alienation strategies and public policies for structural changes
addressing the social and institutional perpetuation of parental alienation.