A predator profiler doesn't just analyze the predator; they analyze the ecosystem that allows it to hunt. For the pathogenic parent, that ecosystem is the family court system. In Part 6, we laid out the blueprint for a parent to build a perfect safe harbor, but what happens when that harbor is located in a jurisdiction that protects the sharks?
In this chapter of The Pathogen Papers, the investigation turns its full attention to this systemic failure. We will lay out the specific charges, from the ousting of clinical expertise to the devastating "Wait 'Til 18" fallacy, that prove the system often acts not as a protector, but as a co-conspirator in the abuse of children. The gloves are off. This is the indictment.
Finding:
The family court system often acts as a co-conspirator in child psychological abuse. This is not due to malice, but to a core structural flaw: the ousting of qualified clinical psychologists who can diagnose pathology. This has created a vacuum filled by junk science, leading to a systemic abdication of responsibility where the court misunderstands and enables the long-term trauma it is supposed to prevent.
Analysis:
A predator can only thrive in an ecosystem that allows it to hunt. For the pathogenic parent, that ecosystem is the family court system—a world where the wolves are running the asylum and the judges don't even know it. Manipulated by skilled predators and enabled by a crippled system, the courts have become a place where children's safety is secondary to legal maneuvering, and the very people tasked with protecting them have become unknowing accomplices to their psychological abuse.
The Indictment
Charge #1: The Ousting of Clinical Expertise
The system made a fatal error when it began to favor forensic psychologists over court-involved clinical psychologists. Forensic psychologists are not qualified to diagnose or treat the complex pathologies at play (Price-Tobler, 2023). The court requires specialized clinical expertise in domains like attachment pathology, delusional thought disorders, and Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another (FDIA) to see the full picture (Childress, n.d., p. 1). This issue is compounded by a general lack of specialized knowledge among many mental health professionals (MHPs), a key finding in recent survivor-based research that reveals negative experiences and a lack of knowledge regarding Severe Parental Alienation (SPA) (Price-Tobler, 2023, p. 106). By removing the diagnosticians, the system crippled its own ability to see the pathology, leaving judges, who are experts in law but not psychology, to make life-altering decisions based on which attorney fought better, not on the clinical reality of the family.
This lack of clinical expertise in the courtroom creates a therapeutic dead-end for survivors. As research by Dr. Alyse Price-Tobler highlights, adult survivors consistently report being unable to find adequate mental health care. They are forced into the untenable position of having to "train their therapist" on the dynamics of their own abuse. Because child psychological abuse has been improperly framed by concepts like PAS, many therapists are ignorant of the actual pathology. In her further research, Dr. Price-Tobler found that clinicians who are unprepared for the depth of this abuse often experience profound vicarious trauma themselves (Price-Tobler, 2023, p. 45).
Overwhelmed, they turn survivors away, leading to the devastating moment where a patient, after months of regurgitating their trauma, is told, "I can't help you." Or worse, they are dismissed by practitioners influenced by the PAS narrative that adult survivors are "too broken" to be helped. Survivors are not too broken; they were abused. They do not need to be labeled with a fraudulent syndrome, they need proper diagnosis and trauma-informed treatment. This systemic failure creates a vicious cycle, ensuring that today's children in the system will likely suffer the same fate, left without a community of professionals equipped to help them heal.
Charge #2: The Junk Science Vacuum
With true clinical expertise removed from the courtroom, a dangerous vacuum was created. Nature abhors a vacuum, and in the family courts, this void was eagerly filled by the simplistic, non-clinical junk science of "Parental Alienation Syndrome." This theory persists not because it is valid, but because it is useful to a crippled system.
The Allure of Simplicity: Complex family trauma involving personality disorders, coercive control, and attachment pathology is messy and difficult to diagnose. Junk science like PAS offers a dangerously simple, black-and-white narrative: one "good" parent, one "evil" alienator, and one "brainwashed" child. This appeals to an overloaded court system looking for a quick and easy explanation that doesn't require deep clinical understanding.
The Performance of Science: This junk science mimics the appearance of a real diagnosis by using pseudo-clinical language and subjective checklists, such as Gardner's "eight primary manifestations" of the syndrome. These criteria have never undergone the rigorous scientific validation required for inclusion in the DSM-5, yet they are presented as a legitimate diagnostic tool.
Providing Cover for Abusers: The most devastating consequence of this vacuum is that it provides the perfect cover for the true pathogen. The simplistic PAS narrative allows a genuinely abusive parent to reframe their campaign of coercive control as the actions of a "loving" parent trying to "protect" their child. It allows them to point to the child's fear and rejection—rational responses to abuse—and label them as "symptoms" manufactured by the other parent. This dynamic allows violent alienating parents to masquerade as fragile victims, a key finding in survivor-based research.
This junk science took hold because the clinicians who could debunk it were sidelined. In turn, its prevalence further pushes out real clinical expertise, creating a self-perpetuating cycle of ignorance that leaves children unprotected.
This creates a vicious cycle in the courtroom where one parent claims Family and Domestic Violence (FDV), and the other counter-claims "Parental Alienation." The court, lacking the clinical tools to differentiate between genuine abuse and a perpetrator's performance, becomes paralyzed. This does nothing but cause continued harm to the child caught in the middle, while the true pathogen continues to run the circus.
Charge #3: The Abdication of Responsibility (The "Wait 'Til 18" Fallacy)
A fallacy is a belief that appears logical on the surface but is built on a foundation of flawed reasoning. In family court, perhaps no fallacy is more cruel than the one offered by judges who, faced with the devastating outcomes of their own rulings, tell a left-behind parent, "Wait until they are 18, they'll figure it out."
This judicial myth is built on a dangerous ignorance of three core psychological realities:
The Reality of Perceived Abandonment:The switch never flips. A child who is systematically cut off from a parent does not magically seek them out on their 18th birthday. Instead, the court's ruling becomes the final "proof" that reinforces the pathogenic parent's narrative. The child's reality becomes one of abandonment (Price-Tobler, 2023, p. 22). When court orders prevent the parent from attending school functions or sporting events, the child doesn't see a parent abiding by the law; they see a parent who has vanished. That confusion curdles into rage directed at the parent who has seemingly abandoned them.
The Reality of Attachment Damage: A child rejecting a parent is a severe attachment pathology—a deep wound in the brain's love-and-bonding system. It is not a temporary phase but a profound "emotional cutoff" in a primary family bond. To expect a child to simply "figure out" how to reverse a "directional change in a primary motivational system" on their own is like expecting them to set their own broken bone (Childress, n.d., pp. 1, 6).
The Reality of Identity Damage: The judge's advice completely ignores the severe and lasting identity damage inflicted upon the child. The trauma and the false narrative become fused with their sense of self. They don't just "figure it out"; they must deconstruct and rebuild their entire identity, a struggle often linked in research to suicidality (Price-Tobler, 2023, p. 129).
The family court system doesn't produce normal; it manufactures complex, long-term trauma and then walks away, leaving survivors to deal with the consequences for a lifetime.
The Path to Reform: Reinstate the Clinicians
The fight to keep "parental alienation syndrome" out of the DSM is a fight to stop labeling abused children with a disease. The solution is not to create a new false diagnosis, but for the court to use the expertise it has abandoned. The system must reinstate court-involved clinical psychologists and psychotherapists, who possess the specialized knowledge to help judges address the real issue: the pathogen. Only clinicians trained in attachment, personality disorders, and child abuse can give the court the tools it needs to spot the predator and protect the child (Childress, n.d., p. 6).
I am living proof of this system's failure. My own abduction and illegal adoption were not just the actions of one predator. They were the actions of an entire system that bought into the predator's narrative, sanctioning and legitimizing those actions through a court that failed to perform its most basic duty of due diligence. The system didn't just fail to protect me; it became an active co-conspirator in the erasure of my identity.
When the courts unknowingly empower predators and silence the experts, the system stops being a protector and becomes a co-conspirator. It is in breach of its most sacred contract. So what is to be done?
In our final installment, we will stop analyzing and start advocating. We will lay out the verdict and the sentence: Dropping the Gavel.
References
Childress, C. A. (n.d.). Dr. Childress specialized expertise.
Price-Tobler, A. (2023). Disrupting the intergenerational trauma cycle of high-conflict divorce: Volume one. Inspiring Publishers.
About the Author
Dawn McCarty is a #1 international best-selling author and award-winning cybersecurity expert who applies the rigorous principles of threat detection and risk management to the complex landscape of childhood trauma. An abduction survivor turned global advocate, her work in promoting systemic reform earned her the Catalyst for Change Award for advancing SDG #10 – Reduced Inequalities.
Dawn’s personal story—marked by abduction, grooming, and the weaponization of the Mormon religion within a dynamic of pathogenic or cult-like parenting, is the driving force behind her life's work. This lived experience, combined with over 25 years in cybersecurity and a background in cyberpsychology, gives her a rare, 360-degree understanding of both technological and human threats. She uniquely compares the breach of a child's safety to a critical security breach in a system, providing innovative strategies for threat detection, risk mitigation, and building resilience.
This synthesis of survivor insight and expert analysis is the foundation of her upcoming Unsealed Trilogy. The series begins with her gripping memoir, Sealed to My Abductor; continues with the analytical framework, Doctrine of One: The Cult of Two; and culminates in the groundbreaking clinical dissection, Anatomy of a Mind-F*ck. She is also the creator of the Digital Defense series, which equips families against cyber and AI-related threats.
Her multidisciplinary expertise is grounded in extensive academic training, with degrees in Criminal Justice (B.S. in Psychology of Victimology, M.S. in Crime Scene and Evidence Management), B.S. in Computer Science, and an MBA in Cybersecurity. As the founder of the Thrivers Speak® and Securing Everything, and co-founder of the Nothing About Us, Without Us (NAUWOU™) conference, Dawn leads the charge to protect children from online predators and toxic family dynamics, particularly those involving severe Child Psychological Abuse (CPA) linked to undue influence, child predators, pathogenic parenting, alienation, and abduction.
Through her writing, speaking, and advocacy, Dawn provides a roadmap for deconstructing trauma and creating safe, informed environments for the next generation.
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