Citation

Leenaars A, Lester D. Death Stud. 1990; 14(1): 25-30.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1990, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/07481189008252343

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A recent study by Lester and Leenaars (1) indicated that some genuine suicide notes are more consistently construed as genuine than others. This study attempts to isolate what characteristics of suicide notes allow people to perceive a suicide note as genuine. We compared a sample of more and less obvious notes on the basis of eight patterns: unbearable pain, interpersonal relations, rejection-aggression, inability to adjust, indirect expressions, identification-egression, ego, and cognitive constriction. We found no differences on these patterns; only two specific (protocol) items distinguished the sets. The "obvious" suicide notes expressed a greater stimulus-bound focus and a greater limitation of thought. These results suggest that future research should be more phenomenological in nature.

Language: en