Reflections on the Psychological Assessment Industry
Written on Aug 13, 2025
In a lengthy article in the Sheffield Tribune, 8.8.25, titled 'The "harmful pseudo-science" infecting Sheffield's family courts', journalist Jessica Bradley describes the growing concern over the reliance of some expert witnesses in the family courts on a controversial concept known as 'Parental Alienation Syndrome' (PAS). This originated in the work of US psychiatrist Richard Gardner, who describes PAS as occurring when 'children are preoccupied with deprecation and criticism of a parent - denigration that is unjustified and/or exaggerated.' It arises when children being 'brainwashed' by the other parent (the 'programmer'), but also 'subconscious and unconscious factors within the programming parent that contribute to the child's alienation from the other.' According to the article, 'Gardner believed he was seeing this syndrome extraordinarily frequently in children going through protracted custody battles - in roughly 90 per cent of cases.'
Despite this, many experts have expressed grave doubts about the authenticity of PAS. Of great concern are parental access and custody cases where children allege that they have been physically and/or sexually abused by their fathers. According to Gardner the presence of PAS strongly suggests that these claims are fabricated.
In her article, Ms Bradley outlines in detail a case that appeared before Sheffield Family Court, where a child's claim of being sexually abused by her estranged father was rejected because the opinion of a psychologist who had assessed her was that she exhibited PAS. Ms Bradley refers to several other cases in which the same psychologist, having detected PAS, recommended that fathers have access to their children who had alleged that they were abused by them.
Training courses for qualified professionals in how to identify PAS are advertised online and elsewhere and these involve the purchasing of formal psychological protocols for this purpose. The professionals, on completion of their training, are deemed to be ready to apply their newly acquired skills in the real world of the family courts. Also advertised are courses in the psychological treatment of PAS.
Well, isn't it fair to say that this how things should be for the common good, even if trained experts can't get it right all the time? Oh, come on! A bit of skepticism won't come amiss here! Study the above paragraph again. Don't you get just a hint of a lucrative industry throbbing away at the centre of all this? And isn't there a template here for generating similar enterprises? You bet! In fact, this template was well established years before PAS ever appeared on the scene.
First, a psychological problem, syndrome or disorder is identified and labelled (or one of the existing disorders, which now amount to hundreds and growing) is flagged up as requiring urgent attention. Formal assessment protocols (usually copyrighted) are constructed and marketed, likewise training course in assessing and diagnosing the said problem, using these devices. Note that initially a course may consist of one standalone workshop, but over time. 'intermediate' and 'advanced' courses emerge, as well as courses that specialise in certain groups of clients and patients. Needless to say, all of this come at a price but, having completed the course, the successful trainee, if they choose to do so, is now at liberty to pursue a lucrative business (or augment their existing practice), providing their services to individual clients, the education system, the civil and criminal justice systems etc., and training others in the knowledge and skills they have learned. Also is the prospect of specialising in the treatment of the problem.
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