A Kidnapped Mind: A Mother's Heartbreaking Memoir of Parental Alienation

by Pamela Richardson, Jane Broweleit, Reena Sommer (Foreword by)

How do we begin to describe our love for our children? Pamela Richardson shows us with her passionate memoir of life with and without her estranged son, Dash. From age five Dash suffered Parental Alienation Syndrome at the hands of his father. Indoctrinated to believe his mother had abandoned him, after years of monitored phone calls and impeded access eight-year-old Dash decided he didn’t want to be "forced" to visit her at all; later he told her he would never see her again if she took the case to court.

But he didn’t count on his indefatigable mother’s fierce love. For eight more years Pamela battled Dash’s father, the legal system, their psychologist, the school system, and Dash himself to try and protect her son - first from his father, then from himself. A Kidnapped Mind is a heartrending and mesmerizing story of a Canadian mother’s exile from and reunion with her child, through grief and beyond, to peace.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction, Audiobook

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Reena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the proof of the book in Nov 2005 and was asked to write the foreward to the book. It's an honest and emotional account of a mother desperately trying to save her child emotionally in the face of a legal system that did not get it.

[Louise Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

can't really say i enjoyed this read...it's pretty heartbreaking. i am not naive and i know that things like this happen often. i have a few friends who are guilty in much more subtle ways of alienating their children from the other parent, but i hesitate to have them read this because they would simply not see themselves as the behavior of the father in this biography is so outlandish. i also hesitated to recommend it to friends who were being alienated because the outbreak is so difficult to accept. i found the book compelling and informative, but had i been dealing with this issue myself, i think it might have been just too painful. that said, it is a story that had to be told.

[Michelle S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heart wrenching

I, myself, am an alienated parent. The fact that this is allowed to go on and ignored by a great number of Judges is appalling. My heart goes out to Pamela and her family as well as all the other families wrongfully being put through a failing system. What happened to "children need to have relationship with both of their parents to be happy and well adjusted.

[Janet Berge Cloutier · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be required reading for every professional involved with children, especially with family court. The gross negligence on the part of the psychologist whose "professional opinion" actually reinforced the PA is appalling to say the least (sadly, he is still practicing). The numerous judges who, over the years, did not take the evidence and witnesses' testimonies and concerns seriously is shameful. My heart goes out to Pamela Richardson and her family. Thank you for sharing your painful story and bringing more awareness to this very real problem in our family court system.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking story, unbelievable actually that this could happen. A divorce leads to an ugly custody battle and repeated court appearances for visitation. One parent isolates the child from the other to the extent of causing emotional / psychological damage PAS. The extent the father went to and the lack of help from the courts is astonishing. A must read.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

oh gosh this is kind of bland, until you start framing the author as the villain, then it suddenly becomes really fun. Don't read the intro, the intro has spoilers.


After you've read this, read Peter Hart's obituary. Author knows you can't defame the dead.
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/...

[Eileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

TRIGGER WARNING- also a spoiler. The alienated child kills himself in the end And this is a real life story. I know I was not in headspace to hear this when I listen to this book. And it really put me in the dark dark place/ spiral. Because the kids sounded a lot like my daughter in some ways just years younger. Listened to this on Audible.

[Hilary Cockshaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audiobook. This was an incredibly difficult listen which took me back to places I never wanted to go again.

[Dan O'Shea · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a book every person should read. It opens the mind to the controlling, evil and abusive ALIENATOR. There is no reason for such actions - but it exists. It also highlights the ENABLORS, who hold just as much guilt because their sin was worse - they saw the truth and lied about it. It also enlightens the reader that professionals within the legal and psychiatric communities will ignore, and still do, PARENTAL ALIENATION SYNDROME. Even now, the American Psychiatric Association refuses to acknowledge PAS as the vice chair of the DSM-5 task force ruled out "Parental Alienation" as a disorder, saying that "the bottom line - it is not a disorder within an individual," "It's a relationship problem - parent-child or parent-parent. Relationship problems per se are not mental disorders."
Obviously he never met Peter Hart and tens of thousands like him.
Further, two of the misunderstandings of PAS by the APA is, "if PA becomes a diagnosis, its misuse will influence judges to remove children from protective parents and put them in the custody of abusive parents; and the people who advocate that PA should be included in DSM-5 and ICD-11 are motivated by hidden agendas or ulterior motives, such as winning court cases and earning money as expert witnesses."
Actually, that is what is happening by IGNORING PAS. This book is the ultimate example - despite Pamela Richardson 12 years of pleading, the court removed Dash from the protective parent AND, this book clearly showed "the hidden agendas or ulterior motives" are committed by the ALIENATORS and the ENABLERS.
I find it hard to believe, as in my case, and in all PAS cases, where there is a trail of evidence showing who the ALIENATOR is and who the ALIENATED is, that legal and psychiatric professionals can't see that trail, of who is attempting to prevent access, and who is trying to gain access to their own child.
It's reprehensible. Just as reprehensible as what is realized in reading this book.
It made me angry, it made me extremely sad. Those that have heard of PAS should read it, those that haven't should to see that it exists.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a heartbreaking, heart-wrenching book about how some parents use their children as tools to hurt the other parent in divorce situations. I have a friend that is going through something very similar to this and it is frustrating and heartbreaking to see one parent doing this sort of thing.

[Ryankarap · Rating 3 out of 5]

Throughout the book I found myself very angry with the legal system that allowed this to happen. Such a sad, sad heartbreaking story.

[Carey Aquino · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm living through this and this book
Is heart wrenching! It's sad this happens

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to read.