The headline was stark. The news report was short and to the point: "An appeals court last week reversed the 2002 murder conviction of Texas mom Andrea Yates, who drowned her children in a bathtub. A new trial will be set. Yates has a history of depression" (Stein 2005 20). In this brief comment, the idea of depression as a motivator (if not an excuse) for a mother murdering her children is at once frightening and disturbing, and on the other hand not that unusual.
"More than 200 women kill their children in the U.S. every year. Andrea Yates who drowned her five kids, and pediatrician Ellen Feinberg, of Champaign, Illinois, who stabbed her two young sons, one fatally, are not uniquea.'We end up with a lot of dead kids in this country, yet we persist with the unrealistic view that this is rare behavior. These are not the isolated cases we would like to believe.' Homicide is one of the leading causes of death of children under age four" (Korbin 2002 1). Surely, this sort of homicide can be considered abnormal and psychotic behavior.
At the original trial, when the jury pronounced the guilty verdict many people were astounded and upset that her psychotic behavior didn't seem to matter. "The verdict was met with disappointment and anger by the defense's consultants, including, most notably, Cyndie Aquilina, a social worker who bitterly attacked the jury, calling the judgment a "ludicrous and ignorant decision." The verdict generated strong reaction within the mental health field, as well as in the press and among the general population" (Vatz and Weinberg 2002 49).
Is Depression considered "abnormal psycvhology"" If it results, as it did in Andrea Yates' case, in the murders of her five children, there is certainly little "normal": about her actions and their results. Depression is becoming a serious and yes, abnormal psychological problem among American families: "ßA welter of recent research shows that few o...