Citation

Leenaars AA, Lester D, Wenckstern S, McMullin C, Rudzinski D, Brevard A. Death Stud. 1992; 16(4): 331-342.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1992, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/07481189208252581

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This archival research, a comparison of suicide notes written by individuals who killed themselves and notes--called parasuicide notes--by individuals who attempted suicide, involved two studies. The first study involved a comparison of eight patterns (comprised of individual protocol sentences): unbearable pain, interpersonal relations, rejection-aggression, inability to adjust, indirect expressions, identification-egression, ego, and cognitive constriction. The second study involved a protocol analysis based on previous reviews that compared completers and attempters. Independent judges scored the notes. No differences in the eight patterns were found. However, protocol differences were noted, namely that attempters see themselves more often as too weak to cope with life's difficulties; attempters see their attempt as a style of life; attempters express greater lack of social integration; and completers see themselves as more immature, passive/aggressive, and/or antisocial. There may be important commonalities between attempters, whose attempts are of moderate to high lethality, and completers. A number of significant limitations exist in the current study warranting some caution in generalizing to all suicides and parasuicides.

Language: en