Janet R. Johnston, PhD, MSW¶
Professor Emerita. The bridge between PA-recognition and safeguarding camps.
Why she matters here¶
Johnston brought empirical rigour to high-conflict-divorce research and is the most-cited academic on alienation alongside Joan Kelly. Practitioners and critics both treat her as the bridge between the recognition camp and the safeguarding camp — her work makes the contested middle of the field navigable rather than polarised.
Credentials & affiliation¶
- PhD (sociology/clinical), MSW
- Professor Emerita, Department of Justice Studies, San José State University
- Formerly Judith Wallerstein Center for the Family in Transition
- Former consulting associate professor, Stanford
Key contributions¶
- Impasses of Divorce (1988) — foundational analysis of why some divorces stay locked in conflict.
- In the Name of the Child (2nd ed., 2009) — practitioner-facing synthesis.
- "Parental Alignments and Rejection" (2003) — one of the first empirical PA-prevalence studies in clinical samples.
- "Parental Alienation: In Search of Common Ground" (2020), Family Court Review — the standard citation for a differentiated, less polarised PA theory.
Where to find her work¶
Contact¶
No verified public personal path; SJSU department contact only.