The Family Next Door

The Family Next Door uses psychological phenomena to explore the pressures of motherhood and the nature of familial bonds. The novel grounds its plot in the real-world medical challenges of postpartum depression (PPD), which affects approximately one in eight new mothers in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“Symptoms of Depression Among Women.” CDC Reproductive Health. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024). Postpartum depression can cause sadness, crying, mood swings, irritability, fatigue, anxiety, and feelings of guilt. It may lead to an inability to care for oneself or one’s baby. Psychotherapy and antidepressant medications have proven to be very effective treatments for symptoms of postpartum depression (“Postpartum Depression.” Cleveland Clinic, 2022).

The novel also depicts postpartum psychosis, a condition that disrupts an individual’s sense of reality, which affects approximately 0.013% of women who have given birth (“Postpartum Psychosis.” Cleveland Clinic, 2022). The two main symptoms of postpartum psychosis are hallucinations and delusions. Other symptoms can include mood changes, like depression or mania, insomnia, agitation, and thoughts of self-harm or harming others, especially the affected individual’s newborn. The causes of this condition aren’t fully known, but common factors include: a history of other mental health conditions, like bipolar disorder; sleep deprivation; hormone changes; and other medical conditions, like thyroid disorders or autoimmune diseases. The main treatment methods are antipsychotic or mood stabilizer medications and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) (“Postpartum Psychosis”).

The narrative also touches on the topic of Genetic Sexual Attraction (GSA), a term that describes a phenomenon in which unexpected romantic feelings arise between close relatives who meet for the first time as adults. The term was coined in the 1980s by Barbara Gonyo, who experienced an intense attraction to the son she had placed for adoption decades earlier. Essie’s intense feelings for Isabelle, which she initially interprets as romantic, are ultimately explained by this phenomenon, which reframes Essie’s behavior as a powerful, disorienting biological response to finding her sister. Little scientific research exists on this phenomenon, and critics of the hypothesis consider it pseudoscience.