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Commentary: Toward a Psychodynamic Understanding of Filicide—Beyond Psychosis and Into the Heart of Darkness

Dr. Papapietro is Clinical Psychologist, Minimum Security Community Preparation Program, Whiting Forensic Institute, and Dr. Barbo is Clinical Psychologist, Maximum Security Admissions Unit, Whiting Forensic Institute, Connecticut Valley Hospital, Middletown, CT. Address correspondence to: Daniel J. Papapietro, PsyD, Whiting Forensic Division, Dutcher Building, Connecticut Valley Hospital, Middletown, CT 06457. E-mail: daniel.papapietro{at}po.state.ct.us

Much of the literature on filicide explores acute psychosis, sociopathy, or malignant narcissism (psychiatrically ill versus not psychiatrically ill) as primary explanations of why parents kill children. In this issue, Hatters Friedman et al. review the literature on acute psychiatric symptoms in an effort to identify key risk factors for filicide that might have predictive value. In this commentary, we assert the argument that filicide is a complex phenomenon that is the result of more than just psychosis or environmental stressors and that, because not all parents who become psychiatrically ill kill, there may be specific risk factors related to individual underlying psychodynamic conflicts.