Another case of 'mad dad' syndrome is all over the papers today. It's hard to know the circumstances but it just leaves me with a sense of total horror and confusion. A bad divorce, losing your house, your life changing irrevocably. Of course there are strong emotions, but enough to over-ride the love you have for your own children, to the extent you would rather snuff out their lives than let them live? This needs more explanation.
Is it that such men feel homicidally disempowered by their lives? Or that they feel like perennial victims blaming everyone around them for their lot? Whatever the circumstance it seems to me to be the worst crime of all: to take the lives of children because you want to deprive your partner of them, claiming ultimate ownership of them and their existence just because you had a part in their creation.
These actions have to have their roots in some kind of infantilised rage which finds its escape in the most horrific and deadly way: the last lashing out by a totally damaged mind that refutes, in those final moments, every last claim on fatherhood.
No comments:
Post a Comment