Die Tötung eines leiblichen Kindes

In this book, the taboo of infanticide is contrasted with an understanding of a case’s latent structures of meaning, which enables a clear comprehension of how biographical experiences of loss are dealt with. In addition to this reference to biographical research, the study also relates to the present-day notion of grief as both a subjective mental state and a social construct. The reconstructive analysis of four cases is based on a perpetrator typology, for which interviews with 24 mothers and fathers were examined in detail. This resulted in three main findings: Biographical internalization and idproduct processes; relationships between overidentification and functionalization; and coping structures. It can be said that parents who have killed a child draw on gendered emotional constructs, rendering the gender category irrelevant in the cases’ deeper structures.