Medea as the Modern Mother: Infanticide, Motherhood, and Transmutation

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Infanticide is both a horrifying and unsolved dilemma of today’s society. Neither the field of psychology nor the legal system has adequately healed or contained this phenomenon, as the number of baby deaths at the hands of their mothers has remained consistent if not rising. Punishment lacks any deterrent power as most infanticides at the hands of mothers are done in states of psychosis. It is worthwhile to examine the basis and context of maternal infanticide as not a singular crime, but as a comment on today’s society and, in particular, the construct of motherhood. The death mother archetype, the one who needs to kill her child, is a strong negative energy buried in the shadows of our collective psyche; infancticide is the attempt to bring it to light. By bringing attention to it, we might transmute that shadow energy into not only a changed woman, but a changed concept of womanhood and motherhood in our society.