The Medea Complex: The Mother's Homicidal Wishes to her Child

Abstract

A Complex is a group of emotionally invested ideas that have unconscious activities. Contrary though it be to the popular and sentimental idea of an overriding mother love, it is common, especially in child psychiatry, to find a mother's lively hatred and even homicidal wishes towards her child. I consider that this should be called “The Medea Complex.”

Maternal filicide: a reformulation of factors relevant to risk

“…The original 'Medea complex' formulation of Stern (1948) related maternal violence to displaced anger from the husband, a theme continued in the 'retaliating mothers' subgroup in the later typologies of Resnick, Scott and d'Orban. The issue of displaced anger is much less clear in these cases.…”

“…Early papers on maternal filicide emphasized the complex nature of homicidal acts by mothers. Stern (1948) applied the term 'Medea complex' to maternal hatred for a child, ranging from rejection through to murderous assault. He took the name from Greek mythology, describing the situation in which the mother harbours death wishes to her offspring as revenge against the father.…”

Filicide: Historical review and prevention of child death by parent

“…When twins were born to many tribes living in Canada, Australia, and Africa, it was common to kill the weaker of the two if it was felt that both could not be supported (Emery, 1985). Many cultures have eliminated selected newborns for eugenic reasons (Stern, 1948).…”

De epidemiologie van kinderdoding in Nederland, 2009-2014

“…De derde categorie bestaat uit het doden van een kind uit wraak tegen de (ex-)partner, met als doel de (ex-)partner te laten lijden (Rougé-Maillart, Jousset, Gaudin, Bouju & Penneau 2005;Bourget e.a. 2007;Resnick 1969) en staat ook wel bekend als het Medea-complex (Stern 1948;Bourget e.a. 1990), vernoemd naar de Griekse mythe van Medea en Jason.…”