Emily McBride on Maternal Mental Health and the Lindsay Clancy Trial

The article discusses a conversation with Emily McBride, a fiction writer, about her debut novel titled Queen Mab. McBride is interviewed by co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell for the podcast Fiction/Non/Fiction. The discussion explores themes of maternal mental health, particularly postpartum psychosis, and how these themes intersect with the real-life case of Lindsay Clancy, a Massachusetts woman charged with killing her three children. Clancy’s insanity defense has drawn significant public attention, sparking broader conversations about postpartum mental health conditions. McBride’s novel centers on a 23-year-old graduate student named Madeleine, who struggles to bond with her baby and begins to fear her child might be a changeling—a creature from folklore substituted for a human child. The novel uses literary allusions to fairies and changelings to reflect the pressures and disorientation of new motherhood.

Madeleine, the protagonist of Queen Mab, is a 23-year-old graduate student specializing in Victorian and modernist literature. After giving birth, she experiences difficulty bonding with her baby and questions her own sanity. Her fear that her child is a changeling serves as a metaphor for her detachment and confusion. McBride explains that Madeleine’s academic background in literature leads her to seek explanations in folklore, such as changeling stories, to make sense of her unsettling emotions. These stories, rooted in European folklore, describe how fairies replace human infants with changelings, often explaining a child’s unusual behavior or a parent’s distress. Madeleine’s use of these narratives reflects a broader theme in the novel: how people throughout history have turned to storytelling to explain experiences that lack clear medical or psychological understanding.

The novel delves into postpartum mental health, particularly postpartum depression and psychosis, conditions that affect some new mothers. Postpartum depression is a mood disorder characterized by persistent feelings of sadness, fatigue, and detachment after childbirth, while postpartum psychosis is a rare but severe condition involving hallucinations, delusions, and extreme confusion. McBride draws from her personal experience, noting that she herself experienced symptoms of postnatal depression after having children but was only diagnosed five years later. The novel explores these themes through Madeleine’s character, who feels dissociated from her baby and struggles with societal expectations of motherhood. McBride highlights the lack of representation of these experiences in literature, despite their prevalence in real life.

McBride discusses how literature has historically addressed crises, including motherhood, but often overlooks the complexities of postnatal experiences. She notes that Madeleine’s academic focus on modernist literature is intentional, as modernist writers like T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf experimented with form to reflect a world where old certainties had collapsed. Similarly, Madeleine’s fragmented reality mirrors the modernist literary style, which seeks to capture the disorientation and uncertainty of new motherhood. McBride also references changeling stories as a historical attempt to explain inexplicable emotions or behaviors, much like how modern psychology now frames postpartum conditions. The novel critiques societal expectations of motherhood, which often idealize the experience as inherently joyful and natural, while ignoring the struggles many women face.

Madeleine’s relationship with her adoptive mother, Carol, adds another layer to the story. Carol, who could not have biological children, idealizes motherhood and the idea of a grandchild, which creates tension with Madeleine. After giving birth, Madeleine feels overwhelmed and misunderstood, believing Carol’s earlier remarks about wanting a grandchild were a desperate plea. However, Carol later clarifies that her words were said in a moment of emotional vulnerability, not as a demand. This misunderstanding highlights the communication gaps and unmet expectations that can strain family relationships in the context of new parenthood. McBride uses this dynamic to explore the diverse experiences of motherhood, including those who cannot or do not wish to have children.

McBride explains that folklore, such as changeling stories, has historically provided explanations for phenomena that lacked scientific understanding. Changeling tales, originating in European folklore, describe how fairies replace human infants with supernatural creatures, often as a punishment or trick. These stories were a way for people to rationalize a child’s unusual behavior or a parent’s distress. Today, medical and psychological explanations have largely replaced folklore, but McBride notes that literature still serves as a window into the minds of people from the past. In Queen Mab, Madeleine’s use of changeling stories reflects her search for meaning in her own disorienting experience of motherhood, bridging the gap between historical superstition and modern understanding.