The valid clinical construct of parental alienation was not simply fabricated out of then air. There are examples in history.
The history of parental alienation in the United States is also related in part to the evolution of US Custody practices and customs.
Here is a worldwide timeline:
BC: In the Bible, when 2 parents came to Solomon to claim that they were the real parent, Solomon offered to cut the baby in half, but the authentic mother said no. It became clear that one "parent" did not have the child's best interest at heart (and was willing for the child to die). If it took the wisdom of Solomon to find which parent really had the best interest of the child at heart (the authentic parent), there is reason to believe that in our present age, this can be tough (because parental alienation is counter intuitive). In Parental Alienation one parent is claiming to "protect the child", but they are actually be using the child for their own needs.
BC: Trauma reenactment: PTSD may appear in the Book of Job, and Greek Historian Herotodus probably alluded to it. Homer appears to have mentioned it. For sure it shows up in Shakespeare's King Henry the IV. MacBeth has famous scenes of trauma reenactment ("out spot").
1606: First performance of Shakespeare's MacBeth, featuring trauma reenactment ("out spot").
1600s: Queen Mary of the Scots appears to have been alienated from her son James. Her child James was taken away at a young age and did not ever see his mother. Even when Queen Elizabeth had queen Mary unfairly beheaded, James did not care very much, a sign of a plugged up attachment system. Besides missing contact with her, he incorrectly believed that she was a guilty of murder and adultery http://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-queen-of-Scotland http://www.britannica.com/biography/James-I-king-of-England-and-Scotland
This reference by Lorandos describes early court cases, including:
1804 King v De Manville
1817 Shelley v Westbrook
1826 Earl of Westmeath v Countess of Westmeath, which is documented more fully here
1844 Barry
1850 Charlies Dickens is said to have alienated his children "When Dickens’s last child, youngest of a large brood, was six years old, Dickens, who’d fallen in love with the actress Ellen Ternan, expelled his wife Catherine from his life, and demanded that his children do the same. He justified his brutality against his wife with claims that Catherine was an unloving mother – not true – and that the children did not love her – a much more pernicious lie."
1862: Victor Hugo had parents who were divided over political loyalty, and Victor was triangulated into this conflict. It is therefore fitting that when he wrote Les Miserable (a book about human misery), there is a large section about parental alienation, where Marius' grandfather alienates him from his father, or as Sparknotes puts it "Marius Pontmercy is a young man who lives with his wealthy grandfather, M. Gillenormand. Because of political differences within the family, Marius has never met his father, Georges Pontmercy. After his father dies, however, Marius learns more about him and comes to admire his father’s democratic politics. Angry with his grandfather, Marius moves out of Gillenormand’s house and lives as a poor young law student". Said another way "due to a political divide, grandfather tells father he must give up son if son is to inherit wealth. Then grandfather ridicules father to son; son despises father. Father affectionately goes to mass every week and to secretly lay eyes on son. Son only learns of this after Father’s death. http://www.britannica.com/biography/Victor-Hugo http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/lesmis/summary.html
In the early 1900s, according to Linda Gottlieb, "US custody law began changing from custody to father, to the tender years doctrine, to the best interests of the child." "Prior to that ,subsequent to the founding of this country, children as well as their mothers were considered to be the property of the father/husband, and children were automatically awarded to the father in divorce situations." See 2018 below, where the Tender Years doctrine was found to conflict with science.
1914: Because parental alienation requires a deep understanding of multiple area of psychology, including family systems, personality disorders, and attachment systems, it is fitting that Albert Einstein may have been the first person to use the word "alieanated" (translated from German) in private letters stating that his vindictive ex was alienating his son from him:
7/1914 Requests spouse to not belittle him in front of their children by word or behavior [Einstein 1914a]
9/1914 Believes spouse poisoning their children against him [Einstein 1914b]
7/1915 “My fine boy had been alienated from me for a few years already by my wife, who has a vengeful disposition.” “The postcard I received from little Albert had been inspired, if not downright dictated, by her” [Einstein 1915]
9/1915 “The cause was mother’s fear of the little ones becoming too dependent on me.” “Hans Albert let his father know that the whole visit made him feel uncomfortable” [Einstein 1915]
4/1916 “I Hope that this time you will not again withhold the boys almost entirely from me.” [Einstein 1916]
1938 Einstein’s son rejects medical science (medical care) for his son, leading to death of Albert's grandson. It seems ironic for this to have happened to one of the world's greatest scientists. [Einstein 1938]
1927: Sparks case. A newspaper states that the child said "You are not my mama."
1935: Motion picture "O' Shaughnessy's Boy", about parental alienation.
1940s: An asthma doctor, Dr. Peshkin, discovered that some of his most severe asthma patients improved markedly when their (overbearing) parents were removed from the equation. [Peshkin]
Willhelm Reich (1945) wrote that many divorced parents defend themselves against what he called narcissistic injury by fighting for custody of their children. He found that parents who experienced narcissistic injury often defamed each other and did so in front of the children. Reich, W. (1945, 2006). Charakter alyse [Charter Anslysis] [German] (8th ed.). Cologne, Germany: Kiepenheuer & Witsch. MO. He wrote "The true motive is revenge on the partner through robbing him or her of the pleasure in the child" [p. 265]. "The lack of any consideration of the child is expressed in the fact that the child's love for the other partner is not taken into account" [p. 265]. See "Character analysis," New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
1974: Minuchin wrote: "The parents were divorced six months earlier and the father is now living alone… Two of the children who were very attached to their father, now refuse any contact with him. The younger children visit their father but express great unhappiness with the situation" (1974, see p. 101), from Minuchin, S. (1974). Families and family therapy. Harvard University Press. From p. 61-62, 101, 102
1970s According to Linda Gottlieb, "US custody guideline change from 'tender year's doctrine' to 'best interest of the child.'" Further Linda notes that "based on 42 years working with children and families, that the standard of 'the best interest of the child”'is deeply flawed because it does not recognize and require each parent to be equally important to the child."
1974 – Triangulation – Previously known in family counseling as “triangulation” [Gottlieb2014] [Minuchin 1974,pg 55] The “pathological triangle”
1976 – The underlying clinical phenomenon is referred to as a “pathological alignment” in " Wallerstein, J. & Kelly, J. (1976). The effects of parental divorce: Experiences of the child in later latency. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry", according to Kelly and Johnston's 2001 Reformulation Paper, which notes that in 1980 they also discuss "children who refused visitation with one parent"
1982: Dr. Richard Gardner coins the phrase "parental alienation" and provides an 8 point model.
1991: A judge notes that "In the opinion of this Court, any parent that would denigrate the other by casting the false aspersion of child sex abuse and involving the child as an instrument to achieve his/her selfish purpose is not fit to continue in the role of parent. Like Medea, she is ready to sacrifice her child to accomplish her selfish goal"
1993: Salvador Minuchin and Michael Nichols write a book called Family Healing that provided a structural family diagram for the pathology of "parental alienation" - called a "cross-generational coalition" in family systems therapy. Further he talks about success coming when "when one spouse doesn't recruit the child in a coalition against the other."
2006 - Michael B Donner, PhD, publishes "Tearing the Child Apart: The Contribution of Narcissism, Envy, and Perverse Modes of Thought to Child Custody Wars", discussing the psychoanalytic aspects of high conflict divorce.
2014 Dr. Childress identifies additional theoretical underpinnings using only "classical psychology". See his book Foundations
2015 Hollywood releases Star Wars: the Force Awakens and grosses over $2 billion dollars on an alienation themed movie. Spoiler Alert: Kylo Ren is manipulated by Snoke to reject an "inadequate" parent, with insufficient power.
2018 - The Tender Year's doctrine not supported by science, according to 4 decades of research and 110 leading endorsers.