Psychology Today | 09.09.2026 01:08
Regardless of the eventual outcome of the Lindsay Clancy case—a conviction or acquittal—as a Jungian psychoanalyst, I’m not surprised the case has become organized around a striking binary. Clancy is cast in two opposing roles: either the evil, monstrous mother—because a loving mother could never kill her children—or the victimized, mentally ill mother, once a loving mother like any other, who was overtaken by mental illness and failed by psychiatry and the mental health system. That the jurors struggled to reach a unanimous decision reflects our cultural splitting and society’s struggle with motherhood.
