Dear Jeannie,
Do you think the death of a child could eventually make a mother snap to the point that she'd want to deprive other women of their children, to make them share her grief?
Curious about Female Serial Killers
Dear Curious about Female Serial Killers,
The funny thing about psychopathy, and perhaps the one thing professionals wish they could change the most, is that no one can predict what will make a person "snap." It's a combination of things, actually, so you'll want to pay close attention to your would-be mother's environmental stressors. Make sure her child's death is the last straw, due to the perfect storm that had already been brewing.
For example, let's look at the 1992 movie, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle. Rebecca De Mornay's OB-GYN husband had sexual assault allegations against him, after which he kills himself. She learns that all assets are frozen and she'll lose her luxurious home. Going into early labor, she then loses her baby and has to have an emergency hysterectomy due to hemorrhaging.
WHAM! Loss of husband, home, child, and any future hope of children. It's little wonder she takes up residence as a live-in nanny with the family of the woman who first charged her late husband with rape. The environmental stressors she went through primed the pump for her to lose her sanity. Click to Tweet!
I believe that any sane mother who loses a child probably has thoughts of wanting the children of other people. I believe to some degree those ideas would be normal, yet ultimately dismissed. If your character is going to kill multiple children of other people, so that those parents share in her particular grief, this would be a new kind of spin on an older plot line. Very twisted...I like it.
Best of luck with your story!
Jeannie
Got Questions?
Post them anonymously below, using monikers like Sleepless in Seattle. If this new idea for posts takes off, I'll begin posting more than just one Dear Jeannie column to address the questions.
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Anonymous · 615 weeks ago
My question from last week wasn't selected. It seems obnoxious to re-post it. What should I do?
Humiliated in Houston ;)
jeanniecampbell 76p · 615 weeks ago
Anonymous · 615 weeks ago
Wrecked Two Ways in Texas
Anonymous · 615 weeks ago
When he is nearly killed by his own power and he finally reaches the point of desperation, he is offered help by a small team of drug dealers, with issues similar to his own. They manipulate him to earn his trust and allegiance by offering him aid and sympathy, whilst playing on his anger and feelings of abandonment/betrayal towards his old group. He also becomes addicted to the drugs they are supplying him to keep his power under control.
After a series of confrontations between the two groups, his old teammates learn the truth and the guy is forcefully dragged back to them, in part so they can finally help him.
What might his emotional state and feelings be after being "taken away" from his new allies and back to his old friends who originally "abandoned him"?
Unknown in the UK
((So all questions posted on these columns will eventually be answered even if they're not chosen the first time around?))
jeanniecampbell 76p · 614 weeks ago
philangelus 22p · 614 weeks ago
The closest I ever saw anyone get to your assertion is when they'd say they didn't understand why drug addicts and child abusers would have the gift of a healthy baby when their baby had died. But precisely because that's such an abnormal reaction (most of the women on the support group were more concerned that other women might suffer the same loss, not that they wanted other people to experience the same thing) the environmental and outside stressors need to be that much higher.
jeanniecampbell 76p · 614 weeks ago
i think you bring up a good point, though, that i want to expound on.
to Curious About Female Serial Killers:
It might be more believable if your villian suffers the lost of an infant. Not to get into a conversation about which loss is greater (infant or toddler/older child...they are both horrific) but it seems that a parent would miss out on more from the loss of an infant. Their mind might wander more as to what the infant would have been like, looked like, grown up to be, etc. It might be easier to then transfer their thoughts of wanting a child onto other babies, in particular, like having a chance to start over. With the loss of an older child, the parent firmly understood their child's personality, dislikes, preferences, etc....and it might be harder to get around this phenomenon that philangelus mentioned of simply wanting their own child back. Just some thoughts.
What do you think, philangelus? Curious about Female Serial Killers?