Citation

Dieserud G, Leenaars AA, Dyregrov K. Suicidol. Online 2015; 6(2): 47-55.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, The author(s), Publisher Medical University of Vienna, Department of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

The Psychological autopsy (PA), a method for obtaining data on psychological and contextual circumstances related to suicide, includes talking to some key persons around the deceased. Most PA studies have relied on structured interviews with one or two closely related persons only, which may have seriously impaired the understanding of suicide. By exposing the divergent views that came to fore when 120 informants around 20 non-clinical suicides (no previous suicide attempts or treatment in mental health care) were interviewed in depth, we demonstrate how informants of different relationships to the deceased may not only give supplementary, but often contradictory information on reasons for suicide. Three main themes emerged from the interviews that were related to the opening/closing questions, "What are your thoughts on the circumstances that led to the suicide of X? and "Do you believe that this suicide could have been prevented, and if you do, how"? In the opinion of the close bereaved, reasons for the suicides were due to: 1) Reasons other than mental illness; 2) Longstanding problems; and 3) Problematic relationships. The present study is part of an ongoing PA study of non-clinical suicides, at Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

Keywords: Psychological autopsy studies (PA), qualitative interviews, suicide, complex relationships in suicide, hermeneutics.

Copyrights belong to the Author(s). Suicidology Online (SOL) is a peer-reviewed open-access journal publishing under the Creative Commons License 3.0.

Language: en