Infanticide and Filicide: Foundations in Maternal Mental Health Forensics combines chapters written by social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists, and attorneys with experience at the intersection of maternal mental health and forensics. As the text states in its introduction, the killing of a child by the mother, maternal filicide, is not a new phenomenon nor specific to any culture. In 2001, Andrea Yates drowned her five children while experiencing postpartum psychosis. Her case serves as the crux of the text, and her defense attorney, George Parnham, JD, as one of the text's coeditors. A portion of this text is an autobiographical account from Mr. Parnham, as he expresses his shock in response to this crime and subsequently his compassion and willingness to learn about Mrs. Yates' state-of-mind. Co-editor Gina Wong, PhD, also brings her expertise as coeditor to this text. Throughout her career as a psychologist, she has diagnosed and treated women with perinatal mental health conditions prior to serving as a perinatal expert witness in Canada.
Infanticide and Filicide is divided into four sections labeled as “foundations.” The first uses five chapters to examine the legal aspects of maternal infanticide and filicide, the second explores the impact of perinatal psychiatric complications in such cases, the third discusses the role of the expert witness, and the fourth contains sociocultural considerations and feminist approaches to prevention and treatment. The final section offers two clinical cases to which the four foundations are applied. At the end of every chapter, there is a summary of the main clinical, legal, and cultural points as well as a section of practice questions and discussion prompts. Key terms and concepts are defined in the glossary at the end of the text.
The text's back cover describes its purpose to serve as a guide and “an invitation to forge ahead together in canonizing a subspecialty field of maternal mental health forensics in an effort to address, advance, and advocate on behalf of mothers, fathers, their children, their families, and generations to come.” This goal is noble, and a heavy undertaking for one text alone. Each foundation has the potential to fill multiple volumes. Though this book provides a breadth of information, the audience is not clear. To this point, the back cover asserts the text is relevant to all audiences, stating, “Whether casually interested in the topic or actively involved in maternal infanticide or filicide cases … readers will gain a comprehensive understanding of the legal outcomes … and advanced understanding from a biopsychosocial perspective.”
When an audience is broad for a very specific topic, such as infanticide and filicide in a forensic context, it is difficult to navigate the nuances without a shared understanding or background knowledge. If the desired audience are only those who are “casually interested,” perhaps a primer on the difference in international justice systems is imperative. For instance, an early chapter focuses on an Illinois postpartum law that has great potential to help mitigate and reduce sentencing for those suffering from mental illnesses who engage in illegal or violent conduct in the postpartum period. It is here that the informational groundwork is clear, until parallels are drawn between law making in different countries, such as Great Britain and the United States (p 50). To applaud one country's systems without recognizing the difference between legal systems can be confusing or potentially misleading. The United States and Canada work within a common law system that leads to an adversarial approach, whereas Great Britain operates within a civil law system that has an inquisitorial approach.
Overall, I found this collection enjoyable, as it is exciting to recognize several contributing authors within this specialty. While its goal to help “canonize the subspecialty” is lofty, I do think it is a step in the right direction. I hope others working in the field of forensic psychiatry take interest in maternal mental health, especially as it related to infanticide and filicide, and using this text is one potential way to do so. Ultimately, I find the most appropriate audience of the text to be psychiatry residents or trainees in other mental health fields who are interested in women's mental health who could utilize this text for further exploration of this specific topic and to best understand the current state of research in the field.
Footnotes
Disclosures of financial or other potential conflicts of interest: None.
- © 2023 American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
