The myth of suicide prevention

Abstract

Beginning in the 1950's, a movement to prevent suicides grew in the United States. One of the early suicide prevention centers was in Los Angeles, and this center pioneered in research into the psychodynamics and identification of the suicidal individual. The Los Angeles center was funded by NIMH and, in the 1960's, one of the codirectors of the Los Angeles center, Edwin Shneidman, joined NIMH to found a Center For Studies In Suicide Prevention. As a result of the stimulation of the Los Angeles center and the NIMH unit, the suicide prevention movement in the United States has grown immensely. There are now over 200 suicide prevention centers, an American Association of Suicidology with over 500 members, and a thriving unit at NIMH. Yet we are not preventing suicide. The evidence is overwhelming at the present time that this activity in suicide prevention has had very little, if any, effect upon the suicidal behavior of Americans. The present paper will attempt to document the failure of the suicide prevention movement, suggest some reasons for this failure, and evaluate the prospects for suicide prevention in the future. First, we must briefly look at some typical activities of a suicide prevention center.