Suicidal Behaviour: A Search for Its Psychic Economy

Looking at the problem of suicide and suicidal behaviour from a psychoanalytical perspective, Kind analyses the various motivations for such impulses and the therapist's countertransference reactions to a suicidal patient. Therapeutic strategies for dealing with threatened or actual suicide are evaluated within the clinical context. suicidal patients, for example, may provoke emotions of anger, guilt and helplessness in their therapists: these emotions only intensify if a patient makes a successful suicide attempt. Is the therapist right to feel guilty? The issue of guilt is used by Kind as a starting point for his exploration of what suicidal behaviour actually represents. he bases his analysis on clinical observations made during therapy with psychosomatic patients, neurotics and patients with borderline disorders. The dynamics of transference and countertransference, object relations, transitional domains and types of interaction, both within the patient and between the patient and the therapist, are discussed. Understanding the origins of suicidal impulses makes it possible for the therapist to cope with his or her own reactions to the patient's behaviour. This study will be of interest to all those working in mental health care and related professions.