Five dead children were found in Solingen – the alleged perpetrator is the mother. We spoke to a psychologist: Why do mothers kill their children?
They are said to have been between one and a half and eight years old, two girls and three boys. Five children were found dead in an apartment in Solingen on Thursday afternoon. Only an eleven year old boy survived. The mother is seriously injured after throwing herself in front of a train in Düsseldorf. She is the alleged perpetrator.
The deaths cause horror across Germany. One question dominates the reactions to the unimaginable act: Why? We spoke with forensic psychologist Lara F. about what drives mothers to kill their own children.
Psychologist on the Solingen case: why do mothers kill their children?
"This case is a case of infanticide. In fact, it is not that rare – unfortunately," explains the psychologist. Childicide means that the child is killed by one of the parents. "There are very different motives," she knows from her work in forensics, but the reasons can be roughly divided.
"On the one hand, there is of course the unintentional killing of the child. That will not be the case in the Solingen case, but it is about, for example, when a child is very stressful, the mother is overwhelmed and it shakes." If the child dies as a result, it is a result of the abuse, but the killing was not intended.
"Then there is the neonatalicide, if you kill the newborn shortly after birth," says Lara F .. Possible motives are, for example, that the child is not wanted.
Sometimes an underlying mental illness can lead the mother to see her children in a different light and ultimately to use violence against them: "It can also be that the mother is psychotic, that is, develops a psychosis and is influenced by psychotic symptoms or kill several children, "we get explained. For example, psychosis can lead to hallucinations, delusions, and a complete loss of reality.
Extended suicide: When the mother kills her children and herself
The case from Solingen, however, points to a completely different cause: "The mother tried to kill almost all of her children, one survived. And above all, she tried to kill herself in the end," said this factor Particularly important for the psychologist: "This suggests that she saw no other way out, in which case one could even speak of extended suicide. Then mothers think that when they are no longer there, no one can take care of the children – and they kill them to save them from suffering. "
What sounds absurd, in this case should appear to mothers as the best option for their child: "They think, for example, that the children would be worse off if they continued to live in this world." This could also happen, for example, if the mother saw her own life as having no prospects.
Ultimately, many factors can come together to drive a person to such an act. "From the outside one can only speculate about exact factors. Forensic scientist Axel Petermann also points out the corona crisis, for example. That is why all the mechanisms such as childcare and school that normally work would have failed. Then the mother with six children can be hopeless have been overwhelmed, "notes Lara F.
Anything can come together to bring a woman to such an act of desperation.
Especially when there is no support from the father or family, mothers can quickly feel overwhelmed. That would by no means justify such an act – but perpetrators don't necessarily have to be mentally ill to commit them: "I would say that theoretically every woman can be driven to something like this if the appropriate circumstances arise", warns the expert. In the end, the reasons could be as individual as the family circumstances: "If, for example, you are completely disintegrated, have no support, have no social contacts, are completely left alone," Lara F. lists, "Anything can come together to bring a woman to such an act of desperation."
Sources used: Interview, Der Spiegel, RTL, Tagesschau