Parental Alienation and Factitious Disorder by Proxy Beyond DSM-5: Interrelated Multidimensional Diagnoses

Using Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy / Factitious Disorder by Proxy and Parental Alienation as exmplars, this book advances a new diagnostic category for addressing complex pathological phenomena that integrates individual characteristics and symptoms, family as well as other system dynamics, under one diagnosis.

The author examines why current diagnostic categories within the DSM-5 are inadequate and provides a framework for this new category―Interrelated Multidimensional Diagnosis―to better capture the complexity of MSBP / FDBP and Parental Alienation. The book begins with case studies and other examples to make the material accessible, and then proposes step-wise processes of examining family systems to determine if the phenomena exist to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty. After new diagnostic process and criteria are provided, several interventions and recommendations for treatment are offered in a novel way that attends to the core aspects of these pathologies.

This text will provide practitioners, professionals, and researchers with a unique vantage point from which to understand and treat these pathologies.

Michael R. Bütz, PhD, is a licensed psychologist in Montana who specializes in forensics with Aspen Practice, P.C., and clinical and neuropsychology at St. Vincent Healthcare. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association’s Society of Clinical Psychology and recipient of numerous awards from APA’s Provincial and Territorial Psychological Association Affairs Division (31). Dr. Butz has been best known for his previous work on nonlinear dynamics as the author of Chaos and Complexity: Implications for Psychological Theory and Practice (1997) and as coauthor of Strange Attractors: Chaos, Complexity and the Art of Family Therapy (1997) and Clinical Chaos: A Therapist’s Guide to Nonlinear Dynamics and Therapeutic Change (Routledge, 1998).