Suicide and Parasuicide

Abstract

In contrast to what has been repeatedly noted regarding the psychoses, satisfactorily comparable data on suicide are abundant, in fact so abundant that I had thought to omit the subject from the present book since covering it requires a book in itself. However, although the literature is so extensive and in places so rich, the way in which psychiatry uses it has remained confused, in part because of an insufficient distinction between consummated suicide and parasuicide (suicidal attempts which have failed by reason of something more than mere accident) and in part because suicide resulting from clear thinking is insufficiently distinguished from that resulting from disturbed thinking. Psychiatry is concerned with the latter but not usually with the former. Also, purely sociological theories of suicide, such as those of Durkheim, are sometimes applied to mental disorder and it is desirable to assess how well these theories are based. The purpose of this chapter is to make clearer, with the aid of international and historical comparisons, the different forces motivating suicide and parasuicide and the lessons which psychiatry should be able to draw from the theories to which the study of suicide has given birth.KeywordsSuicide RateSocial IntegrationHigh Suicide RateGuilt FeelingAnhedonic DepressionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.