Parental alienation has reached epidemic proportions within the last 30 years. A recent episode of “Dateline” exposed how the mind of a child can be kidnapped by one parent in order to target the other parent. Upon the disturbing conclusion of the show, “Dateline” made information on parental-alienation available on its website.

In a recent episode of “This is Life with Lisa Ling,” fathers alienated from their children were interviewed. In upcoming documentary called “Erasing Families” and hosted by Maria Shriver, both targeted mothers and fathers will be interviewed. During the airing of the credits, loving messages from targeted parents to their alienated children will be posted.

Divorce has become a big business, mostly since mothers are no longer considered to be the primary caretakers of children. Primary caretakers are now presumed to only parent 50 percent of the time; sometimes less; sometimes not at all. Parents, attorneys, judges, guardian ad litems, psychologists and psychiatrists advocate long, embittered custody battles. The longer the battle, the greater the potential financial reward.

Parental alienation is child abuse. But it is abuse perpetrated by the favored parent. However, false allegations of abuse are used against the targeted parent. A lack of CPS and police reports is a red flag in cases of alienation. Proof of alienation is obvious in the symptoms portrayed by the child victims. The symptomology of the children is unique to alienation. And the pathology of favored parents is consistent among perpetrators and their enablers. It should be noted that children never reject a formerly loving and caring parent on their own accord; not even an abusive one. A third-party (or parties) is always involved.

Children can become indoctrinated within a matter of hours; not even days, or weeks, or months. If you are being denied any form of contact with your child, you are at risk of permanent alienation. And the children are at risk of severe psychological damage. One telling sign indicating the presence of severe alienation is a complete lack of ambivalence. Children cannot be expected to lack ambivalence toward a parent without lacking ambivalence toward life in general. Even more disturbing is their loss of bonding skills. Children cannot be expected to have their bond with a parent completely severed without losing the ability to bond to others, even their own children.