The psychiatrist as a constructor of good parenting? A case study on the relevance of housework

Abstract

The paper deals with this question: which techniques and interpretation patterns construct »good parents« through housework examples in psychiatric report within infanticide files. Parenthood is conceptualized as a caring relationship. Starting from a discourse-analytical framework, expanded by aspects of knowledge sociology, the paper focuses specifically on one infanticide case. This case of a mother who was accused of infanticide twice is interesting for the normative negotiation of good parenting because she lived in an alternative family form: What gender-related and personal responsibility strategies emerge in the patterns of interpretation? And which techniques are used to qualify men and women as good parents in the psychiatric report? The paper shows that the reports are not neutral factual matters. Rather, they show that parental facts, in a way, are brought forth. Furthermore, the results indicate that psychiatric experts in the criminal field can be understood as constructors of good parenting.