Why does a mother beat her child to death?

A few weeks ago the mother of a 4-year-old Brooklyn boy was arrested along with her boyfriend for the savage slaying of her child. Myrna Chen Phang, 25, and her boyfriend, Steven Dadaille, 26, were charged with pummeling Jayden Lenescar with their fists and with a belt buckle during a two day spree of violence. When Phang finally called 911, after leaving the boy in the bathtub fighting for his life all that time, it was too late. He died on the way to the hospital.

The question everybody is asking is why? Why would a mother do this to her little boy?

The information about the case is sketchy and doesn’t provide concrete answers. Phang and Dadaille told an unnamed source, quoted in the Daily News, they were angry at the boy for touching himself. “They said they warned him not to touch himself and he went ahead and did it, so they threw him in the bathtub, threw cold water on him and began hitting him with the belt.” The source said Phang beat him first and then Dadaille took the belt away and began hitting the boy harder, complaining that Phang was being much too easy.

Rosa Adrien, a friend of Phang’s, said Phang spoke about spirits taking over her body. “She said something came over her, almost like a spirit. She said she didn’t know why she let it happen.” Adrien blamed Dadaille, noting that he was “a voodoo devotee.” Phang was recently separated from her husband, Mackenzy Lenescar, and had taken an order or protection out on him. Apparently the separation was not amicable.

From these sparse facts we can speculate on what might have caused Phang to lose her temper and beat her son to death.

First, there was the recent separation, accompanied by the order of protection. If a woman takes out an order of protection it is usually because she is frightened of violence against her. Sometimes she is also angry with the spouse. In such cases, the fear and anger get displaced onto their son. The boy becomes a symbol of the hated spouse and a reminder of him.

In addition, her present boyfriend, Dadaille, was reputedly a “devotee of voodoo.” While this is only second-hand information, we do know from several sources that he complained that Phang was too soft on the boy. Perhaps he had his own anger that got taken out on the boy. And his anger would have infected her anger.

This would explain a loss of temper. However, when we consider that Phang told her friend Adrien that “something came over her, like a spirit,” we may conclude that the rage that took hold of her was all out of proportion to the present situation. What this brings to mind is “transference.” In psychoanalysis, transference refers to a process in which repressed feelings (rage) toward a primary figure (a father) suddenly break to the surface in a present situation and get directed at that situation. Was Phang herself abused as a child? Research shows that abused children become abusive parents.

We can never know for sure what happened in that small apartment in Brooklyn, but we can know that it should never have happened, and we should never stop looking for ways it could have been prevented.