Matricide by Mentally Disordered Sons

In this qualitative narrative study, we critically reflected upon mothering experiences of health professionals with adult children with schizophrenia. Thirteen participants from Australia, Canada, Scotland, and the United States were interviewed. The thematic analysis of the interviews resulted in one overarching theme—mothering in the context of uncertainty: unbalancing and rebalancing as mothers, and three major themes: disrupted mothering, reconfigured mothering, and resolute mothering. The findings suggested participants experienced difficulties in separating their professional role from their maternal responsibilities. The mothers gained expertise by using their dual knowledge to advocate for and support their children’s mental health. The mothers’ dual roles had a positive impact on their relatedness to others within their professional practice. Health care organizations might benefit from the expertise of health professionals with dual roles in the development of support, care, treatment, and delivery of services for people and their family members who live with schizophrenia.

Matricide is the murder of a mother by her son or daughter, a form of homicide rarely seen in psychiatric practice. A narrative review was conducted on the relationship between matricide and schizophrenia, followed by a case report in Brazil of a schizophrenic patient who murdered his mother and was submitted to forensic psychiatric assessment for criminal liability. The article discusses psychopathological, psychodynamic, and forensic aspects related to the case. The observation of ambivalent and conflictive relations between schizophrenic individuals and their mothers suggests the need for family-level interventions to resolve the understandable occurrence of emotional conflicts, which can serve as stimuli that trigger the murder.

This study presents a review of femicides over 31 years (1991–2021) from the Republic of Ireland. A total of 253 cases were located and reviewed, of those 125 were intimate partner homicides (IPH) and 128 non-intimate homicides (NIH). One hundred and ninety-nine (78%) girls and women were killed by a male known to them – intimate partner (husband, partner, boyfriend, ex-partner, ex-boyfriend) (n = 125; 48%), family members (son, grandson, brother, cousin) ( n = 25; 10%) and/or acquaintances ( n = 49; 19%) from adolescence to old age. Thirty-one (12%) were killed by a stranger and 23 cases remain unsolved at this time. The method of killing depended on the relationship and age of the victim and perpetrator. The majority of IPH victims were less than 45 years of age ( n = 101). Twenty-four were over 45 years of which six were over 60 years of age. The leading method of killing in IPHs was stabbing and strangulation and this was more prevalent in those aged between 26 and 45 years. As age increases, IPH decreases with the exception of cases of IP homicide-suicide. Adolescents (13–19 years) and young women (20–25 years) were more often killed by strangulation. Strangulation was also the leading cause of death in stranger killings particularly with sexual violence. There were 20 cases of matricide, with 17 perpetrators suffering from a mental illness at the time of the killing. The leading method of homicide in non-intimate homicides was blunt force trauma.