What is Histrionic Personality Disorder?

Parental alienation occurs when one parent undermines the child’s relationship with the other parent, often during or after a difficult separation.

This behaviour can deeply affect the child’s emotional well-being and their bond with the targeted parent.

While many factors contribute to parental alienation, certain personality traits may intensify these dynamics.

This article explores how characteristics linked to Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD) might influence parental alienation.

If you're an alienated parent and need help with your situation then you should join PAPA today.

At PAPA we have several free to use support spaces, as well as several additional resources available to our Plus members, such as courses, PAPA AI, 1-2-1 help and workshops on family law and mental health.

Understanding Histrionic Personality Disorder

Histrionic Personality Disorder is marked by excessive emotionality and a strong desire for attention.

People with histrionic traits often:

• Use dramatic or exaggerated expressions to capture attention

• Communicate in a way that is impressionistic rather than detailed

• Show high suggestibility, easily influenced by others

• Depend heavily on approval and reassurance

• Fear abandonment or rejection

  
  

It is important to note that many individuals display some of these traits without meeting the full criteria for HPD.

These traits exist on a spectrum and can influence behaviour in various ways.

Key Features of Parental Alienation

Parental alienation involves behaviours aimed at damaging the child’s relationship with one parent.

Common features include:

• Consistent criticism or denigration of the targeted parent

• Manipulating the child’s feelings and perceptions to align against the other parent

• Emotional enmeshment, where the child becomes overly involved in the alienating parent’s emotional needs

• Testing the child’s loyalty, often forcing them to choose sides

  
  

These behaviours can cause lasting psychological harm to children, disrupting their ability to form healthy attachments and trust.

How Histrionic Traits May Influence Alienation

Certain histrionic traits can intensify alienating behaviours.

For example:

• Attention-seeking may lead the alienating parent to use the child as an emotional audience or regulator, drawing the child into their need for validation.

• Emotional exaggeration can amplify grievances against the other parent, making conflicts seem more dramatic and urgent.

• Inconsistent storytelling and a tendency to present oneself as a victim may reinforce the child’s alignment with the alienating parent.

• Heightened suggestibility might make the alienating parent more reactive to perceived slights, escalating conflicts.

  
  

These traits can create a cycle where the child feels pressured to support the alienating parent’s emotional needs, deepening the alienation.

Common Mechanisms in Alienation with Histrionic Traits

Several psychological mechanisms often appear in these situations:

• Triangulation: The child becomes a go-between or emotional buffer between the parents, often carrying messages or emotions.

• Role reversal: The child takes on a caregiving or supportive role toward the alienating parent, reversing typical parent-child roles.

• Splitting: The alienating parent idealises themselves and the child while devaluing the other parent, creating a black-and-white view.

• Crisis-driven emotional displays: Dramatic outbursts or emotional crises are used to maintain closeness and control over the child.

  
  

These patterns can trap the child in a loyalty bind, making it difficult to maintain a balanced relationship with both parents.

Clinical and Forensic Considerations

When professionals assess parental alienation, they should focus on observable behaviours rather than relying solely on diagnostic labels.

This approach helps avoid misdiagnosis and gender bias, which can sometimes influence evaluations.

Key points include:

• Considering alternative explanations for behaviours, such as other personality disorders or situational stressors

• Prioritising the child’s well-being and emotional safety in interventions

• Using evidence-based strategies that support healthy parent-child relationships without blaming or pathologising one parent unnecessarily

  
  

Evaluators must remain neutral and child-focused, ensuring that interventions promote healing rather than deepen conflict.

Moving Forward

Histrionic personality traits may contribute to or intensify parental alienation in some cases by shaping how one parent interacts with the child and the other parent.

Recognising these traits can help professionals understand the emotional dynamics at play and tailor interventions accordingly.

The goal is always to protect the child’s emotional health and support balanced, loving relationships with both parents whenever possible.

Understanding the role of personality traits in parental alienation encourages a more nuanced view of family conflict.

It reminds us that behaviours often arise from complex emotional needs and patterns, not just simple intentions to harm.

Supporting families through these challenges requires empathy, careful assessment, and a focus on the child’s best interests.

In need of help or support?

If you are an alienated parent reading this article and feel you are in need of help and support then please make sure to join PAPA today by signing up here on our website.

This will give you access to our community support forum as well as our Resource Centre, which includes downloadable guides and on-demand courses to help through the process of being alienated and regaining contact with your children.

We also have our Facebook support group that you can join here.

Our Facebook support group has several dedicated chat rooms where you can get immediate support.

If you are a member of PAPA you can also send us a message here on the website and we will try to get back to you as soon as possible but please bear in mind, we have hundreds of messages weekly so it may take us a while to get back to you.

We are currently prioritising PAPA Plus members due to high demand.

Regardless of circumstance you are not alone and at PAPA we are here to support you.

Become a PAPA Ambassador

If you like our resources, articles and support networks and agree with what we stand for then why not get involved and help us push PAPA further by joining our Ambassador Program?

We would love for you to join us and help spread awareness for parental alienation and all of the dynamics involved so that we can continue to help parents and children towards a better future.

Our Ambassador Program allows you to grow your involvement with the cause by earning points on your membership.

To earn points we have created rewards for actions such as completing one of our courses, booking a case review, or ordering supply.

We will be adding new rewards and actions to our Ambassador Program as we continue to grow our awareness efforts.

We want our members to feel rewarded for their support as we continue to look for new ways to improve the lives of those impacted by parental alienation.

You can also become a PAPA Plus member, which will give you exclusive access to even more help and resources.

Each PAPA Plus membership makes a huge difference to the cause as it really helps us to improve our services and our awareness campaigns.

Proceeds from memberships and supply allow us to push the cause much further towards raising awareness and improving our services and resources so that we can continue to help more and more parents and children.

Thank you for reading and for your continued support of PAPA and our mission to end parental alienation.