Medea's children and the Parental Alienation Syndrome

Abstract

The Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) refers to a set of symptoms manifested by the child during and after the process of parents divorcing. The syndrome demonstrates the family suffering and the psychic blows suffered by the child when entangled in feelings of revenge, hatred and rejection. The child is disrespected and used as a tool to punish and cause pain in the alienated parent. As in Medea's myth, in which a mother kills her children, in parental alienation, the alienating parents suffocate and kill their children's ability to perceive, feel, and judge freely. The children become an extension of the alienator, prevented from thinking, discriminate and choose for themselves. By adopting Medea's tragedy and the Jungian theoretical framework, this paper analyzes the references to children in the myth and its relation with PAS and presents the consequences of parental alienation to the psychological development of the child.