It has been reported that Brian Philcox, who killed himself and his two children Amy, 7, and Owen, 3, on father's day was going through an acrimonious divorce. Thankfully, I have never had anything remotely like this occur in any case I have dealt with, but reading reports of such events always makes me wonder if there would be any warning signs that could give a lawyer (or any other professional involved in the case) an opportunity to prevent a tragedy.Thanks to Divorce Survivor for pointing out this article, that appeared in the Guardian in November 2006, discussing the issue of parents who kill their children (known in America by the chilling name of 'family annihilators'). It seems that there are some typical aspects to such crimes, for example most fathers kill out of revenge and most mothers as a result of mental illness, and that there are warning signs that a psychologist would spot. Depressingly, however, expert opinion is that prevention is an almost impossible task.
I hope you never do have to deal with such a case, John. Mercifully, they are very rare though press interest tends to distort the picture. There were a number of articles such as the one you cite in November 2006 and an analysis of them revealed only about 10 cases. There have been a few notable cases since, and inevitably more articles, usually written by childless, middle-aged feminists, and usually promoting the idea that mothers who kill are ill while fathers who kill do it out of revenge or spite. I find this theory entirely implausible, and based on sexist ideology rather than science. Possibly the sample size is too small to make valid generalisations, but a dispute over contact seems to be a common denominator.
ReplyDeleteCarol Sarler wrote a vile - and ironically hypocritical - article this week in the Mail. Demolishing any faltering attempts to understand this phenomenon and setting up her savage prejudisces in their place. To try to understand is not the same as justifying or condoning, and spotting the warning signs might prevent future deaths.
There is an interesting comment here http://www.slate.com/id/2063086/ which looks at the issue more objectively.
My understanding is from a scientific POV the medical experts in both articles are describing traits of personality disorders in the fathers who kill their children. Men are more likely than women to be diagnosed with antisocial, paranoid and schizoid or schizotypal personality disorders whereas women are more likely to be diagnosed with a neurotic illness such as depression or anxiety. Anti social personality disorder is predominantly found in men and historically personality disorders have not been considered mental illness.
ReplyDeleteThe distinction between personality disorder and mental illness is discussed by Prof Robert Kendall in the British Journal of Psychiatry and as you will see the differences between mental illness and 'psychopathic disorder' have been recognised over 58 years.
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/180/2/110
Thanks to you both for those contributions. I'm not qualified to comment on matters of psychiatry, and fear that a little knowledge may be worse than none at all. Obviously, I often come across extreme emotions in the cases that I deal with, but doubt whether I could spot that one case where a tragedy occurs.
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