Andrea Yates Psychological Perspective

On June 20, 2001, a terrible tragedy occurred, as Andrea Yates drowned all five of her children in the bath. After drowning each child child, she picked them up, tucked them in her bed and called in her next victim until all 5 children were deceased. After she had successfully drowned each child, she calmly called her husband and notified local police that she was in need of an officer. As this case reached international news, many pondered what would make the mother of five do such an abysmal thing. Once the investigation began, it became acknowledged that Andrea Yates was influenced by several psychological perspectives and was not in her right mind when she committed the heinous crime. Biological perspectives include factors such as our genes, hormones, chemical imbalances, and / or the presence of disease within the brain. Throughout the investigation, it was common knowledge that Andrea Yates had a history with mental illnesses. Yates was suffering from a condition known as postpartum psychosis, meaning that after the birth of a child, she became extremely depressed, and even recalls having hallucinations of murdering her newborn child. After attempting to commit suicide, her condition was treated with the clinical drug effector and the anti-psychotic Haldol. As Andrea appeared to

Andrea Yates craved a quite household. With four young boys and a female infant, Andrea was constantly engulfed in noise. Also, the death of Andrea’s father had caused her to feel as if she was a terrible caregiver and she was responsible for his death. Andrea also felt that every time her children had behaved incorrectly she was at fault, fearing that she would hold her children back in life. Andrea had even attempted suicide twice because she felt that she was an incompetent mother to her children and felt that they would be more successful without