Alienated Children in the Literary Narratives of Medieval England

Abstract

Few narratives from different cultures and centuries in literature and psychiatry shed light on the familial relationship, specifically between parents and children, and the psychopathology of Parental Alienation Syndrome. Parental misdemeanors stem from the non-compos mentis of a parent or psychiatric disturbances, where parents harbor infanticidal or filicidal wishes towards their children. However, this project aims to delve deeper into the complexities of parent-child relationships beyond the stereotypical happy family frame. By examining cases of infanticide and filicide in medieval England, this paper investigates how and why parental alienation syndrome can damage the soul of a filicidal child. Essentially, this project highlights how child psychiatry experiences in medieval England intersect with literature as a reflection of contemporary events of the time.

Keywords

• Medieval England
• Infanticide
• Filicide
• Familicide
• Psychiatry Psychopathology
• Parental Alienation Syndrome
• Literature

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