Bienveillance filicide. Lecture psychocriminologique du recours à l’acte filicide à la lumière du concept du double dans un contexte de parentalité bienveillante

Abstract

This paper describes three women who, following acts of filicide and attempted suicide, had been hospitalized to reduce suicidal risk while in detention. À similar event preceded all three homicidal acts: the implementation of an additional medical, educational or paramedical support, or the failure to do so. We questioned their parenting in relation to social discourse around positive parenting. These women described having imagined an “ideal child” which was free of poor transmission and who would restore them in return. In an environment where separation from their romantic conjugal partners was not an option, the women viewed their child as “broken” and resorted to action. This led us to the hypothesis that the mother-child relationship referred to the concept of double; this latter was first reflexive and supporting but disrupted the maternal psyche and its unrecognized obscure zone with the announcement of the child being « broken ».