There is a risk that children may be killed by parents suffering from a severe depressive illness. This risk becomes grave when the patient is actively suicidal.
A case has been presented in detail in an attempt to illustrate some of the factors previously reviewed. Many features of the patient's personality seem to fit. the characteristics outlined by other authors. Here, however, the aggressive impulses were not directed primarily toward the child, but the daughter had become part of an increasing conflict situation which the patient attempted to solve by destroying her.
It is a sad fact that this tragedy might have been prevented if both the husband and the patient had been aware of the early symptoms and the homicidal risk involved.
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