Post date: Sep 26, 2011 10:34:13 PM
Parental Alienation: Research Reviews by Joan S. Meier (January 2009).
Gardner's pro-pedophilic beliefs. Gardner's underlying beliefs regarding human sexuality, including adult-child sexual interaction, are so bizarre that it is hard to believe that courts would have adopted his theory if they were aware of what he had published. For instance, his writings express the view that all human sexual paraphilias (deviant behaviors) ""serve the purposes of species survival"" by ""enhanc[ing] the general level of sexual excitation in society"" (Gardner, 1992b, p. 20; see also Hoult, 2006). These sexual behaviors include pedophilia, sadism, rape, necrophilia, zoophilia (sex with animals), coprophilia (sex with feces), and other paraphilias (Gardner, 1992b; see also Dallam, 1998; Hoult, 2006).
Further, Gardner claimed that women's physiology and conditioning makes them potentially masochistic rape victims who may ""gain pleasure from being beaten, bound, and otherwise made to suffer,"" as ""the price they are willing to pay for gaining the gratification of receiving the sperm"" (Gardner, 1992b, p. 26).
Regarding pedophilia, Gardner argued expressly that adult-child sex need not be intrinsically harmful to children. He claimed that adult-child sex is beneficial to the species, insofar as it increases a child's sexualization and increases the likelihood that his or her genes will be transmitted at an early age (Gardner, 1992b). Contrary to his own claim that most sexual abuse claims in the context of custody disputes are false, Gardner also claimed, with equal lack of basis, that ""probably over 95%"" of all sex abuse allegations are valid, because ""sexual activities between an adult and a child are an ancient tradition"" a ""worldwide phenomenon"" and ""has been present in just about every society studied, both past and present"" (Gardner, 1992b, pp. 47-48). Gardner viewed Western society as ""excessively punitive"" in its treatment of pedophilia as a ""sickness and a crime"" (Gardner, 1991, p. 115). He attributed this Western ""overreaction"" to the influence of the Jews (Gardner, 1992b). Gardner opposed mandated reporting of child sexual abuse, and specifically described a case in which he successfully persuaded a mother not to report a bus driver who had molested her daughter. He contended that reporting the molestation would ""interfere with the natural desensitization process, would be likely to enhance guilt, and would have other untoward psychological effects"" (Gardner, 1992b, pp. 611-12; see also Dallam, 1998). Gardner's perspective on adult-child sexual interaction can be summed up in his reference to Shakespeare's famous quote: ""'There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so'"" (Gardner, 1991, p. 115)
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