In this article, I theorize a form of madness induced by state intervention to terminate parental rights in the wake of homelessness and mental illness in Vermont. This argument is grounded in the experiences of two families unfolding over the course of five years, when they were participants in a longitudinal study of rural homelessness. Homelessness renders families vulnerable to the gaze of social workers, health professionals, law enforcement, and other “helping” professions. As parents interface with professionals to meet survival needs, they risk having their economic insecurity and often‐fragile mental health call into question their adequacy as parents. Through close ethnographic attention to two families, I trace the devastating subjective effects of losing children to state custody. The traumatic rupture of intersubjective familial ties produces tectonic shifts in parents' needs and ways of being‐in‐the‐world. The unraveling of family life results in the gradual erosion, and eventual loss, of parental selves.

中文翻译：

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“孩子是我的动力”：破碎的家庭，道德的奋斗以及无家可归的人失去了父母的自我

在本文中，我将在佛蒙特州无家可归和精神疾病之后，由国家干预引发的一种疯狂形式推论为终止父母权利。这一论据是基于两个家庭在过去五年中展开的经历，当时他们参与了对农村无家可归者的纵向研究。无家可归使家庭容易受到社会工作者，卫生专业人员，执法人员和其他“帮助”职业的关注。父母与专业人员接触以满足生存需求时，他们冒着经济上的不安全感和经常脆弱的心理健康状况质疑自己作为父母的适当性。通过对两个家庭的人种志密切关注，我追踪了失去孩子接受国家监护的破坏性主观影响。主体间家庭关系的创伤性破裂使父母的需求和世间生活方式发生了结构性转变。家庭生活的瓦解导致父母自我的逐渐侵蚀，并最终丧失。