Parental alienation occurs when a child is manipulated, whether deliberately or through the unconscious behaviour of one parent, into rejecting, fearing or expressing hostility towards the other parent without legitimate reason.
It is a form of psychological harm inflicted on a child and on the targeted parent, and it is widely recognised by family courts, child psychologists and mental health professionals as a serious and damaging pattern of behaviour.

Parental alienation most commonly occurs in the context of separation or divorce, when the child becomes caught in the emotional conflict between parents. The alienating parent may undermine the targeted parent's relationship with the child through persistent criticism, false allegations, emotional manipulation, restricting contact, or portraying the targeted parent as dangerous, uncaring or unworthy of the child's love. Over time, the child absorbs these messages and begins to mirror the alienating parent's feelings, expressing rejection and hostility that did not originate from their own genuine experience.

The impact on the targeted parent is devastating. To be rejected by your own child, to be unable to see or speak to them, to have the relationship you built deliberately destroyed, and to face a legal and social system that often fails to recognise what is happening, causes a level of grief, trauma, anxiety and psychological suffering that is profound and frequently underestimated. Many targeted parents describe it as a living bereavement.

Children who experience parental alienation also suffer significant psychological harm. The damage to their sense of reality, their capacity for trust, their ability to maintain healthy relationships and their own mental health can persist well into adulthood. Adults who were alienated as children often seek therapy years later to understand and process what they experienced.