debate over the effects of infanticide on surviving children, and the effects of childrearing in societies that also sanction infanticide. some argue that the practice of infanticide in any widespread form causes enormous psychological damage in children.: 261–62 conversely, studying societies that practice infanticide géza róheim reported that even infanticidal mothers in new guinea, who ate a child, did not affect the personality development of the surviving children; that "these are good mothers who eat their own children". harris and divale's work on the relationship between female infanticide and warfare suggests that there are, however, extensive negative effects. psychiatric