Blurring reality with fiction : exploring the stories of women, madness, and infanticide

Problem: Often, there is a sense of shock and disbelief when a mother murders her child. Background: Yet, literary texts (plays, poems and novels) contain depictions of women experiencing mental illness or feelings of desperation after childbirth who murder their children. Aim: To further understand why a woman may harm her child we examine seven literary texts ranging in time and place from fifth century BCE Greece to twenty-first century Australia. Methods: A textual analysis approach examined how the author positioned the woman in the text, how other characters in the text reacted to the woman before, during and after the mental illness or infanticide, and how the literary or historical critical literature sees the woman. Findings: Three important points about the woman's experience were revealed: she is represented as morally ambiguous and becomes marginalised and isolated; she is depicted as murdering or abandoning her child because she is experiencing mental illness and/or she is living in desperate circumstances; and she believes there is no other option. Conclusion: Literary texts can shed light on socio-psychological struggles women experience and can be used to stimulate discussion by healthcare professionals about the development of preventative or early intervention strategies to identify women at risk.