Academic literature on the topic 'Matricide'

At present, scholarship on matricide across many regions of the non-Western world is lacking. For instance, in Ghana, despite the intermittent, yet recurrent, availability of media reports describing matricidal acts over the past quarter century, no existing study has systematically analyzed matricidal killings in the West African nation. To contribute to the literature and extend knowledge about matricide and other forms of lethal violence in Ghana, this article presents the results of an analysis of 21 matricidal acts that occurred in Ghana from 1990 to 2016. Issues studied include demographic characteristics of assailants and victims, modus operandi, temporal and spatial aspects, as well as the motives and circumstances surrounding the crime. The results show that sons were substantially more likely than daughters to kill their mothers, matricide offenders were more likely to suffer from serious psychiatric disorders, matricide offenses generally occurred in the victim’s home, and all cases of matricide were characterized by massive physical force and extreme violence. Matricide offenses in Ghana differed from matricides in Western nations in four important respects: (a) none of the 21 matricides was perpetrated with a firearm, (b) in none of the cases did the offender act with a co-offender (accomplice or accessory), (c) none of the matricide offenses was perpetrated by a juvenile or adolescent offender, and (d) suspicion that the mother-victim was a maleficent witch was an important trigger in matricide perpetration.

The authors studied sixteen men who committed matricide. Fifteen out of sixteen cases had a diagnosis of schizophrenia and the remaining patient had a diagnosis of schizophrenia with personality disorder. All were single at the time of the matricide. Data indicate an intense conflict-laden and ambivalent relationship between the majority of patients with their mothers. Thirteen out of sixteen cases described their mothers as quite domineering and demanding but the EMBU inventory revealed that the Matricidal group differed from the Control group in how tolerant they saw their parents. The sample as a whole saw mothers were more over-involved, over-protective, tolerant, affectionate, stimulating, performance-orientated and shaming. The matricidal group differed from the control group in the way they viewed the difference between mother and father on various scales, like over-involved, tolerant, affectionate and performance-orientated. The matricidal groups' mothers were found to be more over-involved, tolerant, affectionate, and fathers more abusive. Mothers in the control group were more performance-orientated.

Parricide is defined as the homicide of a father or mother by a biological or adopted child. In adults, it is generally associated to a psychotic condition. Scientific research on the subject, have been mainly interested in matricide, patricide or double parricide. Studies comparing authors of patricide to those of matricide are rare.ObjectivesTo compare socio-demographic and clinical profiles of patricide and matricide patients.To compare modus operandi in matricide and patricide patients.MethodsA retrospective, descriptive and comparative study was conducted, based on medical charts’ consult. Were included patients suffering from psychotic disorders (DSM-IV), hospitalized in the forensic psychiatry department of Razi hospital between 1995 and 2015, after not being held for insanity according to article 38 of Tunisian Criminal Code. Only patients who committed patricide or matricide were included.ResultsOur sample included 26 patients (13 patricides; 13 matricides). There was non-significant differences between two groups concerning: instructional level (P = 0.277), professional status (P = 0.387) and marital status (P = 0.790). Committers of patricide and matricide did not differ in terms of psychiatric diagnosis (P = 0.242) and substance abuse (P = 0.550). A significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of schizophrenia subtypes, patricide patients suffered from a disorganized schizophrenia whereas matricide patients suffered from paranoid subtype (P = 0.05). Patricide was more frequently associated to a conflictual relationship between son and father (P = 0.05). We did not record a significant difference in the crime weapon or its motivations.ConclusionOur results helps draw a profile for parricide patients in order to help identify the ones at risk.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

In this article I critically re‐examine Julia Kristeva's view that becoming a speaking subject requires psychical matricide: violent separation from the maternal body. I propose an alternative, non‐matricidal conception of subjectivity, in part by drawing out anti‐matricidal strands in Kristeva's own thought, including her view that early mother–child relations are triangular. Whereas she understands this triangle in terms of a first imaginary father, I re‐interpret this triangle using Donald Winnicott's idea of potential space and Jessica Benjamin's idea of an intersubjective space of thirdness. I argue that this space provides a maternal third term: a relation of connection and difference between two, a relation that inherits the affective, mobile, generative qualities of the maternal body as the infant (according to Kristeva) imagines it. This connecting space allows both mothers and children to emerge as subjects in their own right. I then suggest that potential‐maternal space expands into language, so that language intrinsically allows the possibility of a speaking position of connection with the mother. Entrance into language need not entail separation or matricide: the problem is not language as such but the particular way that speech and logos have been defined historically.

Resumen. El propósito de este artículo es mostrar en qué medida, las complejas relaciones entre la tercera ola y el feminismo precedente provienen de aceptar una versión monolítica y creada ex profeso de la segunda ola. Nuestro recorrido parte de un análisis del término postfeminismo, delimitando su polisemia en dos versiones, la popular y la filosófica. Tras este proceso de desambiguación, analizaremos las narrativas fundacionales de la tercera ola con el objetivo de poner en evidencia algunas de sus características fundamentales y analizar en qué medida, es deudora de una versión distorsionada de la segunda ola. Este análisis nos llevará a analizar la relectura realizada por Naomi Wolf y las dificultades que plantea su nueva versión del feminismo – lo que dio en llamar “feminismo del poder”. Intentaremos mostrar cómo la aceptación de esta imagen creada ad hoc de la segunda ola conlleva consecuencias no deseadas para la tercera ola, ¿qué pasa con los feminismos negros y mestizos? ¿Su exclusión no lleva a incurrir en el mismo error al que se acusa a la segunda ola? Para finalizar, intentaremos dar cuenta de las meta-polémicas que surgen dentro del feminismo de la tercera ola. Para ello, tomaremos como hilo conductor el movimiento hip-hop, un movimiento suburbial de raíces africanas y afroamericanas vinculado al surgimiento de la tercera ola.Palabras clave: segunda ola, post-feminismo, tercera ola.Abstract. The purpose of this article is to show how the complex relationships between the third wave and the preceding feminism come from accepting a monolithic version created on the second wave. We begin by analyzing the term postfeminism, delimiting the term polysemy in its popular sense and its philosophical sense. After this process of disambiguation, we will analyze the foundational narratives of the third wave with the objective of highlighting some of its fundamental characteristics and analyzing to what extent it is debtor of a distorted version of the second wave. This analysis will lead us to analyze the rereading of Naomi Wolf and the difficulties of her new version of feminism - what she called “feminism of power”. We will try to show how the acceptance of this created ad hoc image of the second wave carries unintended consequences for the third wave, what about black and mestizo feminisms? Does not their exclusion lead to incurring the same error as that accused of the second wave? To conclude, we will attempt to account for the meta-polemics that arise within the feminism of the third wave. To do this, we will take as a common thread the hip-hop movement, a suburbia movement of African and African American roots linked to the emergence of the third wave.Keywords: second wave, post-feminism, third wave.