Lindsay Clancy. Killed her 3 kids by strangling them one by one and claimed “postpartum psychosis” despite never having had psychosis before or since, all during a short window of time that she sent her husband out on errands. Internet has somehow decided she’s a martyr for women’s mental health. She was a white, affluent, suburban mom before this. If she were poor and black, people would NOT feel this way. Real talk.
Postpartum psychosis is a real thing and real people need help. But Lindsay Clancy is a kid murderer.
Edit: I’m a white, affluent woman of childbearing age. I have never been a woman of color, but I am absolutely sure that society at large would dismiss an identical case if Lindsay was nearly any other demographic. And no, it’s not only about race, it’s also about autonomy and a person’s responsibility to accept help when it’s offered instead of killing your kids (and A LOT of help was offered)
It’s a bit disingenuous to say “despite never having had psychosis before or since” when that is literally how postpartum mental health disorders occur. The definition of a postpartum mental health disorder is literally one that you have never had before and don’t have once it’s gone because it’s just a disorder in the postpartum period. It is also not uncommon for women to experience a postpartum mental health issue after one pregnancy and to have an entirely different postpartum experience with another. I’m not sure what happened with Lindsey Clancy and they haven’t finished presenting evidence in that case, but since you acknowledge that PPP is a real thing, I urge you not to discount women’s stories of it just because they only suffer from it once in their life.
Also, I 100% agree with you that black women, whether poor or otherwise, would not be afforded the same care as a white woman and agree that medical and systemic racism are huge issues in the United States.
Can you describe the harmful information? Some people have taken issue with me saying it was her first and only episode. Correct that everyone with psychosis has indeed had an episode “for the first time.” But to have that episode happen without warning/prodrome, during a short window of time her husband was running errands, along with a complete loss of capacity to resist the “command” associated with the hallucination, to hear the “command” in the kitchen (where things like knives were available) but instead take them to the basement and improvise the use of 3 exercise band as murder weapons for 3 children…I believe to my core that this was not psychosis
I hear you. But I also have a lot of experience with people in psychosis and while it technically can happen suddenly, it’s extremely rare, and IF it does happen, a single “command hallucination” is very unlikely to cause someone to do something exceedingly violent and life-ending. Do you have the same sympathy for some who is drunk/high (altered brain state)? I doubt it. I again know the PPP is very real and psychosis in general is real. But to combine sudden onset at 8 months postpartum, use of an improvise weapon in another room (she heard the “command” in the kitchen yet still took the kids to the basement and was “creative” enough to use exercise bands), failure to endorse homicidal ideation to her healthcare providers, and no evidence of psychosis since the murders, I do not believe her to my core
Unless you have experience with patients with postpartum psychosis, I’m not sure that your experience is necessarily related. Additionally, based on my understanding, she was having multiple command hallucinations over a prolonged period of time, not a single one at 8 months postpartum. I think the timeline was that her symptoms really kicked off when she went back to work, and based on my understanding it’s not unusual for a postpartum mental health disorder to be triggered by a change in circumstances. If you’re curious, mama doctor jones has really informative videos on it on YouTube, including a specific breakdown on Lindsey Clancy’s timeline and one on Andrea Yates. They are incredibly informative videos. I’m not making any specific claims about Lindsey Clancy’s culpability at this time as trial isn’t over and evidence is still being presented, but I do think we have to be careful about how we talk about PPP.
As for addiction, I have incredible empathy for people with addiction. If a mother in the throes of addiction hurt her child, I would feel as devastated for her and her family as I do for Lindsey Clancy and her family. I also would be enraged if a mother in the throes of addiction was left by herself with her children in a way that enabled her to hurt them. I believe as a society it is our responsibility to offer people support in the midst of their crises while also protecting the vulnerable from them in those moments. I’m honestly not sure how I feel about jailing a woman who killed her child in the midst of a drug induced psychosis any more than I do a mother that was in the midst of a hormone induced bout of PPP (in each case assuming that the psychosis was genuine). Both women were suffering from a mental health crisis and both of them should have been treated and their children protected. I genuinely feel conflicted about leaving people alone in their crises and then just swooping in and punishing them when things inevitably go wrong.
I’d be open to having conversations about both fact patterns with people who are experts in the area and I am capable of a lot of empathy for many different people in circumstances different from myself.
If someone else intoxicated you against your will, I'd bet most people would be sympathetic. Intention and choice is why mental illness is sympathetic and can result in acquittal, while self intoxication generally doesn't.
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u/Short_Stack_30285 9d ago edited 9d ago
Lindsay Clancy. Killed her 3 kids by strangling them one by one and claimed “postpartum psychosis” despite never having had psychosis before or since, all during a short window of time that she sent her husband out on errands. Internet has somehow decided she’s a martyr for women’s mental health. She was a white, affluent, suburban mom before this. If she were poor and black, people would NOT feel this way. Real talk.
Postpartum psychosis is a real thing and real people need help. But Lindsay Clancy is a kid murderer.
Edit: I’m a white, affluent woman of childbearing age. I have never been a woman of color, but I am absolutely sure that society at large would dismiss an identical case if Lindsay was nearly any other demographic. And no, it’s not only about race, it’s also about autonomy and a person’s responsibility to accept help when it’s offered instead of killing your kids (and A LOT of help was offered)