Haunting Minnie Dean: A Heuristic Inquiry Into Baby Farming, Psychological Infanticide and Closed Stranger Adoption

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aut.embargoNoen_NZ
aut.filerelease.date2024-08-13
aut.thirdpc.containsNoen_NZ
dc.contributor.advisorTudor, Keith
dc.contributor.advisorKelly, Frances
dc.contributor.authorSherwood, Violet
dc.date.accessioned2019-06-24T23:05:14Z
dc.date.available2019-06-24T23:05:14Z
dc.date.copyright2019
dc.date.issued2019
dc.date.updated2019-06-22T23:45:35Z
dc.description.abstractIn this study I use the methodology of heuristic inquiry and methods from imaginal psychology to explore the relationship between 19th century baby farming, and my experience of psychological infanticide through closed stranger adoption. Weaving personal journal material, images, and creative writing, I demonstrate how my imaginal relationship with New Zealand baby farmer Minnie Dean revealed, and worked through, themes of infanticidal attachment. My theoretical context is infanticidal attachment theory and its foundation in the psychohistory of infanticide in the Western world. I also draw on adoption theory from psychoanalytic and attachment perspectives. Infanticidal attachment theory proposes that psychological infanticide contributes to serious mental disorders, notably schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder. Drawing on themes of relationship with the ‘murderous mother’, I explore archetypes and myths, personal story, historical evidence, and fictional literature to illuminate both internal and external factors of psychological infanticide. My focus on 19th century baby farming reveals a pivotal historical time in which social conscience metamorphosed the literal enactment of infanticide into psychological forms reinforced by closed stranger adoption laws. My research makes contributions to infanticidal attachment theory, pre- and perinatal psychology, adoption theory, and imaginal psychology. It provides an original and creative example of the lived experience of psychological infanticide from my perspectives as both former patient and current psychotherapist. The study offers hope to people living with infanticidal attachments and the clinicians who work with them, and makes recommendations for further research.en_NZ
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10292/12582
dc.language.isoenen_NZ
dc.publisherAuckland University of Technology
dc.rights.accessrightsOpenAccess
dc.subjectBaby farmingen_NZ
dc.subjectPsychological infanticdeen_NZ
dc.subjectInfanticidal attachmenten_NZ
dc.subjectClosed stranger adoptionen_NZ
dc.subjectImaginal psychologyen_NZ
dc.subjectMinnie Deanen_NZ
dc.titleHaunting Minnie Dean: A Heuristic Inquiry Into Baby Farming, Psychological Infanticide and Closed Stranger Adoptionen_NZ
dc.typeThesisen_NZ
thesis.degree.grantorAuckland University of Technology
thesis.degree.levelDoctoral Theses
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophyen_NZ
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