Rick Luthmann and I were back for Episode of 15 of The Unknown.
We discussed current events, and then some interesting cases both of us have broken.
Rick worked on a story about a local judge in New Jersey who used to be a dominatrix.
I discussed the shocking story of Venkatesh Bhogireddy. He’s in jail after trying to hire a hitman to kill his ex-wife and her uncle, but the child custody case for their children continues. His ex-wife, Usha Karri, is even being threatened with jail for unpaid guardian ad litem bills.
Approximately forty-five minutes in, we welcomed Jill Jones Soderman from the Foundation for Child Victims of the Family Courts (FCVFC).
Jill has been on before, when we welcomed Ria Alchour. Ria has had her daughter taken after her daughter disclosed sexual molestation allegations against her father.
This time, we spoke at length with Jill about the legacy of Richard Gardner. Gardner is the so-called father of the parental alienation movement. It’s something I discussed in my treatise Making Divorce Pay.
Among the most controversial concepts in family court is the term Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS), coined by the psychiatrist Richard Gardner. Among other things, this concept holds that one parent will plant false memories of abuse and molestation in their child as a means of alienating the other parent from the child.
Parental Alienation Syndrome is not listed in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems produced by the World Health Organization, nor does it appear in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The District Attorneys Association of the State of New York instructs that “Prosecutors should diligently question any case law or article that is cited as supporting PAS theory.”
About the only place where PAS is accepted is in some family court rooms.
Dr. Joyanna Silberg is president of the Baltimore-based Leadership Council on Child Abuse & Interpersonal Violence, and she has consulted on thousands of cases in which a parent is accused of PAS. She told me that she considers Gardner, who committed suicide in 2003, to be a pedophilia sympathizer. Her organization has listed Gardner’s most extreme statements on the subject. For example, “The determinant as to whether the experience will be traumatic is the social attitude toward these encounters,” Gardner wrote in his book, True and False Accusations of Abuse; “there is a certain amount of pedophilia in all of us,” and “pedophilia has been considered the norm by the vast majority of individuals in the history of the world.”
Gardner was one of the chief defenders of Woody Allen, the film director who controversially married an adopted daughter he helped to raise with Mia Farrow. Gardner commented to Newsweek about Mia Farrow: “Screaming sex abuse is a very effective way to wreak vengeance on a hated spouse.”
Before Gardner peddled parental alienation syndrome, as it was called then, he peddled, “the concept that child sexual abuse doesn’t exist,” Jill stated on the broadcast.
“His theory was that children are sexual beings from birth,” she continued, “they experience sexual excitement and orgasms from prepuberty.”
“Boys and girls should be encouraged to early sexuality,” she noted further.
The goal, Jill said, was to increase the human race- particularly the white race- by encouraging more childbirth at an early age.
It was this quackery which led Gardner- quite naturally- to the concept of parental alienation syndrome (PAS).
“Parental alienation syndrome was the additional component that justified complaints of child molestation,” Jil stated.
When Gardner was peddling PAS, Jill said that it was used strictly to explain child molestation allegations.
As noted in my article, Gardner was a chief defender of Woody Allen against allegations he molested his daughter.
“Screaming sex abuse is a very effective way to wreak vengeance on a hated spouse.” Gardner said.
As PAS evolved to PA, it encompassed many different behaviors, and Jill and I disagree on the validity of that concept.
Jill said that PA can be properly diagnosed- I disagree- and treated in a clinical setting.
I think it’s always subjective and determined by a so-called expert with a financial motive to determine parental alienation.
We both agreed that the courts have weaponized the term, and they’ve weaponized the term for financial gain.
As such, when courts get involved, it’s never treated, always misused, and often weaponized against a protective parent trying to protect their child from abuse.
I have long believed that though Gardner’s death in 2003 was ruled a suicide, that this was a coverup. He died after being stabbed with a knife four times in the chest and three times in the neck.
A suicide note was left at the scene, and Jill said she has read it.
She is convinced that he did commit suicide, and he caused his death to be brutal as a way to punish himself.
He was made aware, Jill said, of millions of children who went through tortured childhood as a result of his theories. He had a moment of clarity, and this led to his suicide, Jill said.
His legacy continues as parental alienation continues to be used to place children into abusive homes until present day.
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