“You don’t love me” An analytic autoethnography of family artifacts illustrating parental alienation

Parental alienation (PA) is the alignment of a child with one parent over their other parent, typically in divorce or post-divorce family contexts. This analytic autoethnography marries personal experience with scientific inquiry and systematic analysis, using family artifacts to document and expose communication patterns and family narratives of PA. I thematically analyzed family artifacts retained during my parents’ divorce and ensuing visitations for each member’s enacted communication patterns, and the resultant family narratives that perpetuated the alienation of my father. This study demonstrates that PA is a communicative family system phenomenon, extending PA’s interdisciplinary reach, and opens the door for further PA research using family documents and artifacts. Findings can help support victims and enhance accessible resources for families and professionals.