Danielle Zachary

Geunzel

Research Analysis

Postpartum Psychosis Fever

The research question I have proposed is how different types of individuals with certain

stigma/diagnosis are treated throughout the insanity defense process. The individuals I am

looking into are cultists, sexual offenders, and serial killers. I am also looking at how gender

plays a role with bias in the court system during the insanity defense. These are known as my

perspectives and for my essay, I will be combining the research I have learnt from these three

perspectives to create an essay that answers my research question and provides the reader with

information about my topic. For one of my sources, I will provide an in-depth analysis about

what the author(s) are trying to convey and if they get their message across. I will also describe

how this source relates to my overall research question and how it affects my overall research.

The source I am choosing to write about is titled, " Commentary: Postpartum Psychosis,

Infanticide, and Insanity- Implications for Forensic Psychiatry." by Susan Hatters Friedman and

Renée Sorrentino. Susan Hatters Friedman is a psychiatrist that specializes in forensic psychiatry

in Ohio. Renée Sorrentino practices psychiatry at Mass General Hospital in Massachusetts. She

is also the medical director at the Institute For Sexual Wellness and Assistant Professor in

Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. This helps establish credibility/ethos for the authors.

Since they are well respected psychologists/psychiatrists they are known to be resolute in their

fields of science. The article they posted is a commentary, which means they are more
commenting and voicing their opinion on a situation other than conducting an experiment and

researching things. They are talking about Postpartum Psychosis and the things that concern it,

such as infanticide and insanity. Their commentary was published in the Journal of the American

Academy of Psychiatry and the Law in 2012, which is a high honor in the realm of psychiatry

and/or law. The topic of Postpartum illness is a controversial one because it mostly concerns

women and their biology after giving birth. Men can get Postpartum Depression, but it is

extremely rare and usually occurs in women after birth.

The article the authors published was credited with only 14 citations. This is a low

number for published work, but it does not mean that it isn’t important in its field. Conveying

your point properly and effectively is all you need to do to help revolutionize your field of

science. If people are reading your work, even small amounts, they will still take what you say

into consideration and use it in their own research. You are contributing to the bigger picture,

and no matter how small it is, it still counts.

The abstract that is provided that summarizes the essay is quite long and talks about the

infanticide and postpartum psychosis (PPP) and how it is treated in the United States. The United

States views infanticide by postpartum psychosis as more of a crime than a mental illness act of

violence. Postpartum psychosis is a real mental condition but in the Diagnostic and Statistical

Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the guideline book of mental disorders, it is not included

with a diagnosis. This essay aims to talk about infanticide, mental illness, and postpartum

psychosis, and to spread awareness about the dangers of PPP.

The article talks in great length about the history of Postpartum Psychosis and its history.

It has to be noted that PPP is different than Postpartum Depression, with the latter only involving

low moods instead of psychosis. PPP is a mental condition where after giving birth, the mother
begins to go into a state of confusion and psychosis and has hallucinations and delusions. They

tend to believe that their baby is evil and out to get them, so they usually reject the baby. This

can be very dangerous to the mother and the baby. If in a psychotic state, the mother can end up

hurting or even killing the child. Andrea Yates is a famous example of a person with PPP who

killed her children. She plead not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) and was committed to a

mental institution.

Infanticide is where a person intentionally kills an infant. There are several laws that

were enacted to lessen the severity of the charge that is brought upon the mother who kills their

child in a psychotic state. In cases where the individual pleads NGRI it is important to figure out

if the person actually is mentally incompetent at the time of the killing. These laws are put and

apply to the mentally ill, which allows for a heavy process in finding out if the murder was due

to insanity. If these laws were more lenient, random people would be pleading NGRI, but are not

actually insane and killing their kids.

The purpose of this text is not to harass, but more to inform about the issue of Postpartum

Psychosis. It is a commentary, and as said above it aims to comment on certain issues. Sorrentino

and Friedman are experts in their fields and they were the ones that did all the research they

could into this subject, so they could present their opinion in this text. After reading their

commentary, they want the reader to spread the information they learned and get the word out

about how serious PPP is. At the end of the text under the subheading titled “Recommendations

for Forensic Psychiatrists Evaluating Infanticide Cases” they are giving recommendations and

providing advice for the psychiatrists that looking infanticide cases. they want these people to

know how unique PPP is and that it is a medical condition that should be taken seriously.
 This source relates to my research question about gender and how it is biased in

determining if how NGRI goes through. Since my research question is looking into the insanity

part of PPP, most of my information for my actual research essay comes from the subheading

titled, “Insanity, Motive, and Child Murder by Mothers.” This subheading is important to my

source because it can help strengthen my argument about the insanity differences in the genders

and how they reside in the case of insanity. This source is a little bit biased when it comes to

laws concerning infanticide. It is informative and argumentative. Their target is forensic

psychiatrists and general people who want to know more about PPP.

Work Cited

Friedman, Susan Hatters, and Renee Sorrentino. “Commentary: Postpartum Psychosis,

Infanticide, and Insanity-Implications for Forensic Psychiatry.” JOURNAL OF THE
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PSYCHIATRY AND THE LAW, vol. 40, no. 3, 2012, pp.
326–332. EBSCOhost,
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