I propose to analyze the role of psychological expertises in some cases of infanticide at the turn between the 19th and the 20th century. The study focuses on Italian cases, the source material being drawn from criminal records from the State Archives of Florence, but I will be extending my considerations to international literature and sources about psychiatry and legal medicine, specifically in France.

My aim is to examine the interplay of concepts and sets of knowledge which are used by physicians, forensic scientists or psychiatrists in order to answer two main questions put forward by judges: Is it possible for a woman to be pregnant without realizing it throughout the entire gestation period? And: Can the birth of a child take place without the woman being aware of it?

Theses issues relate to subject's sensations and psychological states, although the expertises in question are not exactly psychiatric expertises in the proper sense of the word, because the goal of the examination is not necessarily to detect mental disorders that may annul or lessen the defendant's criminal responsibility. Even if physicians appear as "experts" of pathological states (physical or mental) of the human being, the knowledge referenced in their answers is often unconnected to the domain of pathology.

Nevertheless, this knowledge is perceived and acknowledged as "expert" knowledge, on the one hand because of the privileged role of the forensic physician, and on the other hand since its reasoning utilizes the methodology (specifically the inductive method) of modern experimental science, a field that forensic medicine claims to be a part of. Hence, what kind of knowledge is produced by this kind of expertise? And: What are its “effects of truth” within the judiciary context of the trial and among the scientific community?

My conclusion will focus on the contemporary issue of pregnancy denial as a phenomenon discussed in contemporary medical and scientific debate. Through analyzing the historical emergence of psychological knowledge on pregnancy and the states of consciousness that accompany it, my talk could initiate a discussion on the epistemological challenges in this controversial category of Contemporary psychopathology.