Verified answer

"Stockholm Syndrome" aside, if the child it totally loyal to father then maybe there is some confusion about terming the problem "mental abuse."

The best your friend can do is let the child know that she is a safe person to talk to; she can ask for teachers to watch for behavioral changes in child; she can get profession counseling for child; she call child protective services to interview child.

Some alienated parents will speak very badly of the other parent.

A child can see through the lies if the other parent remains loving & does not berate the other parent.

My dad used to speak very harshly against my mother after their divorce & on our required visitation days. As kids, we put up w/ it and then went home to a loving mother who told us not to hate our father b/c he was the only dad we had. As for his comments, she said we were smart enough to figure out the truth. And we did.

This also happened to my daughter after her divorce. She had no need to berate the children's father. She knew she was not the woman that he painted her to be. When the kids asked questions of her, she said, "You should ask your dad what he means by that."

He eventually got so vile in his responses that the children learned to disregard his words b/c they could see for themselves that she was not this type of woman.