Andrea Yates

Bonnie Adams

PSY-303

Michelle Robison

Andrea Yates was well educated woman in nursing. The moment she married her husband she knew she wanted as many children as nature would allow them to have. Andrea Yates gave birth to four boys and one girl of the period of years. Overtime she was diagnosed with postpartum depression. Her illness got worse as time went on and she became a danger to herself and children.

Andrea Yates was a religious woman and was very dedicated to her children. She had five children aging from seven years old to six-months old. She home schooled her children and followed her religion closely. After the birth of her fourth child her illness became worse and attempted suicide on several occasions. She was diagnosed postpartum psychosis. She was hearing voices and thought her children would be tormented by Satan. She was in and out of the hospital over the years for being psychotic and having thoughts and feelings that she could not control. She was given medication for her illness but would not take it properly or thought it did not help her. I think staying home with her five children and home schooling them did not help her illness at all. Being confined at home all the time and having no time to herself make her illness worse. Her behavior should have been noticed by her husband or loved ones that spent time with her. I think if she would have went back to her career and sent her children to a public school things could have been different for Andrea. “Five psychiatrists testified to Ms Yates’s mental illness. Yet, in spite of the overwhelming evidence that Ms. Yates was mentally ill, Dr. Park Deitz, a noted forensic psychiatrist, testified on behalf of the prosecution that at
The time of the murders Andrea Yates knew her actions were wrong, and socially unacceptable.” (sagepub.com)

Andrea Yates killed her five children with the thoughts that they were not developing correctly and that she would be punished for being a bad mother. I think the illness of schizophrenia became worse over the years and not enough was being done to help her. The signs were there but where was her help? “Andrea Yates - a deeply religious woman who had never before been in trouble with the law and was valedictorian of Milby High School's class of 1982 - already had suffered a series of psychiatric hospitalizations and survived two suicide attempts before she killed her children at the family's home in the 900 block of Beachcomber.
The drowning occurred just months after Yates' father died which devastated her and caused her already shaky mental health to rapidly decline.
Yates killed her children in the span of an hour, after her husband departed for work. She then calmly called police and led officers to the bodies, later telling an investigator her children were not developing correctly and declaring she should be punished for being a "bad mother." (ProQuest.com) In March, 2002 Andrea was found guilty of murder for three of her five children. In 2006 it was overturned to guilty under reasons of insanity and is being held in a state maximum security hospital. Yes, I do agree with their decision. She was ultimately ill and suffered from schizophrenia. I think any mother that can drown her five children and then line them up on a bed and wait for the police to get there is sick in the head. “To drown, in this methodical and implacable manner, five of one’s own children are a horrifying act, inconceivable under normal and even most abnormal circumstances. With one exception, these were not infants. The physical strength alone required, much less the emotional desperation, suggests a state something akin to “possession.” This was clearly a woman plunged into the deepest despair and madness.” (wsws.org) I think Robert Yates said it best when he said, “"I look back. People made mistakes along the way. There were things we could have done. Things the doctor could have done. ... But certainly nobody did anything along the way deserving of murder or life in prison or a death penalty," Russell Yates said Wednesday. This tragedy shows that schizophrenia can control every aspect of someone’s way of thinking and then acting out on them thoughts. I think medication will help control the illness but does not take it away and under severe circumstances medication will not help to keep the delusions and thoughts out of their mind.

References
PEGGY O'HARE, DALE LEZON, DAVID ELLISON, MELANIE MARKLEY, ROSANNA RUIZ, ARMANDO VILLAFRANCA. (2006, July 27). THE ANDREA YATES CASE / NOT GUILTY, BUT NOT FREE / Insanity ruling in second trial sends her to institution / Loved ones call decision `miracle,' while prosecutors are `disappointed' :[3 STAR , 0 Edition]. Houston Chronicle,p. A.1. Retrieved March 9, 2011, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1084484581
Walsh, A., July 2, 2001. Texas mother drowns children: Andrea Yates and “family values” Retrieved on March 1, 2011 from: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jul2001/yate-j02.shtml

Madness, Diasporic Difference, and State Violence, Explaining Filicide in American Courts, Sharmila Rudrappa, doi: 10.1177/0921374007080294 Cultural Dynamics July 2007 vol. 19 no. 2-3 257-277

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