The Medea syndrome hypothesis of the transfer from baby to fetus

"Medea syndrome" refers to the complex picture of signs and symptoms that characterize the female parent that, in response to stress and / or conflict with her partner, discharges her aggression and frustration into her child turning her child into an instrument of power and revenge against the spouse, going as far as to the extreme action of depriving him/her of life. The term originates from the Greek tragedy by Euripides that tells the sad story of Medea, wife and mother, that, in order to punish her husband Jason's betrayal, sacrifices the lives of their children, to assert dominance of women over men.

Recent acquisitions describe the transfer of the syndrome at the fetal time, and analyze its genetic, psycho-biological, pathological, and ethical aspects. Pregnancy is a psycho-biological conflict that marks major changes in the psyche of the mother, who, according Peluffo, is faced with another psyche located in the womb. The scholar, in the analysis of complex immune reactions that occur at the fetal-placental unit level, reiterates the only exception in nature to the rules of histocompatibility. As a result, following the resolution of a possible rejection by the father's side, the conflict may pass from the physical to the psychic sphere. In support of this hypothesis, micropsychoanalysis has also developed the concept of "intrauterine war" between mother and fetus. On a biological level, instead, finds support the hypothesis of a struggle for food, and the subsequent survival, between the two sides, which is realized with the trophoblastic invasion. From the genetic point of view there are situations of maternal-fetal conflicts for the simultaneous presence of maternal and fetal genes, which, being in part derived from the father, are estimated to be strangers by the woman's genetic makeup.

Ultimately, the Medea syndrome is associated with inability by women to manage the pregnancy on the physical and on the psychological level, and the consequent management of the child in the context of her personal implications and interpersonal relation with the spouse. The homicidal dynamic that follows is responsible for a tragic and unnatural revenge, felt as a defense from a world experienced as guilty of abandonment, or failure to comply with pacts previously agreed.

Bibliography

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 Aluvihare VR., Kallikourdis M, Betz AG. Regulatory T cells mediate maternal tolerance to the fetus. Nat. Immunol. 2004; 5:266-71.

 Di Renzo GC. Ginecologia and Ostetricia. Volume 1 and 2. Verduci Editore, Roma, 2006.

 N. Peluffo "Psicoanalisi e Scienza" in Scienza e Psicoanalisi, 2000.

 Galanaud JP, Cochery Nouvellon-E, Alonso S, et al. Paternal endothelial protein C receptor 219Gly variant as a mild and limited risk factor for deep vein thrombosis During pregnancy. J Thromb Haemost. 2010; 8:707-13