Working paper
The Alienated Society: Parental Alienation, Relational Harm and the Future of Families White Paper No 1
Social Science Research Network (SSRN) , Vol.15 May 2026
Elsevier
2026
Abstract
Contemporary families are becoming more diverse, fluid, networked and narratively constituted. These changes create new possibilities for care, belonging and kinship, but they also expose children and parents to new forms of relational vulnerability. Parental alienation is a concentrated expression of this wider problem. It shows how family relationships can be reorganised through narratives of exclusion, danger, contempt and erasure, producing relational harm that is simultaneously psychological, social, legal and political. This white paper argues that the parental alienation field should move beyond a problem-saturated focus on diagnosis, proof and remediation, without abandoning those tasks. Its larger contribution is to help define the relational ethics of future families: safe connection, developmental continuity, non- violence, parental identity, family belonging and institutional responsibility. The future family need not be nuclear, traditional or fixed. But it must not become a network in which children’s relationships are rendered disposable by adult grievance, ideological capture or institutional indiUerence.
Details
- Title
- The Alienated Society: Parental Alienation, Relational Harm and the Future of Families White Paper No 1
- Authors
- Stan Korosi - University of the Sunshine Coast
- Publication details
- Social Science Research Network (SSRN) , Vol.15 May 2026
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Date published
- 2026
- DOI
- 10.2139/ssrn.6732958
- ISSN
- 1556-5068
- Organisation Unit
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991230430502621
- Output Type
- Working paper
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