{"id":650056,"date":"2026-08-22T02:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T02:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/650056\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T02:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T02:43:12","slug":"forensic-psychiatrist-weighs-in-on-contradicting-diagnoses-in-lindsay-clancy-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/650056\/","title":{"rendered":"Forensic psychiatrist weighs in on contradicting diagnoses in Lindsay Clancy case"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (TNND) \u2014 The defense rested its case in the Lindsay Clancy<\/a> murder trial on Friday following several days of testimony about her mental state before she strangled her three children. <\/p>\n

Clancy’s three children, who ranged from 8 months to 5 years old, were found in the basement of her home in Massachusetts. Clancy jumped from a second-story window and is paralyzed from the waist down.<\/p>\n

Kevin Reddington, Clancy’s defense lawyer, did admit she committed the act. However, he argued she should not be held criminally responsible because she had postpartum psychosis. Clancy pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n

Dr. Susan Hatters Friedman, Philip Resnick Professor of forensic psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, joined The National News Desk to break down what postpartum psychosis is and how it plays a role in the case. <\/p>\n

Friedman said postpartum psychosis occurs when a mother is out of touch with reality.<\/p>\n

Beliefs about the baby that are highly unusual, paranoid, thinking about something happening in the family. We can also see mood symptoms, irritability, depression, insomnia, and then also, confusion of state. We can see now, usually there’s an onset within the first few weeks after giving birth,” Friedman said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Clancy’s defense brought in an expert who concluded she was suffering from postpartum psychosis, while the prosecution argued she was having a depressive episode. <\/p>\n

I would say that the different psychiatrists having different diagnoses, even outside of the postpartum, is not that highly unusual, as I was just saying, the forensic psychiatrist has access to all this collateral information, access to all these medical records and the luxury of time with interviews that a busy clinical schedule of doctors wouldn’t generally allow,” Friedman said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She added that symptoms of postpartum psychosis can onset in the first few weeks after birth. Since Clancy sent her husband out on an errand during the murders, the prosecution argued they were preplanned. <\/p>\n

So we know that, with some psychosis, planning is possible. When we’re doing a forensic psychiatric evaluation, we’re looking at all sorts of information,” Friedman said. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She added that information, including medical records and police reports, is gathered when trying to understand mental illness. <\/p>\n

Many women rallied in support of Clancy, including online and outside the courthouse<\/a>. Hundreds of supporters, many wearing pink with the words “Believe,” “She Needed Help” and “Peace For Lindsay,” gathered on Thursday steps away from where she was on trial. <\/p>\n

I think, we as a society have these views of motherhood. You’re supposed to be happy. It’s supposed to be perfect. You’re supposed to be doing everything for everyone else. And that that makes people as stressed. We also have, short, short maternity leaves. We have a women not feeling listened to by by doctors. And so all of those pieces put together, as well in postpartum depression, many, many women have struggled with with difficult thoughts or, intrusive thoughts,” Friedman said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (TNND) \u2014 The defense rested its case in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial on Friday following several…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[78],"tags":[274752,266559,274751,18,274750,135,19,17,147731,167,76805,261805],"class_list":["post-650056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-child-murder","tag-criminal-responsibility","tag-depressive-episode","tag-eire","tag-forensic-psychiatry","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lindsay-clancy","tag-mental-health","tag-murder-trial","tag-postpartum-psychosis"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117136864456426113","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}