Citation

Winkel S, Groen G, Petermann F. Z. Klin. Psychol. Psychiatr. Psychother. 2003; 51(2): 158-175.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Verlag F. Schöningh)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

So-called suicide forums on the internet have attracted public interest by several reports in the media. Experts hold diverging opinions towards these forums, discussing potential benefits like support by others and the possibility of communicating openly about the tabooed issue of suicide, as well as their dangers. Suicide forums might provide information about suicide methods, or people might be compelled to commit suicide by other forum members. Due to the lack of representative studies a conclusion is not yet possible. In this paper, an overview about the issue of suicide forums is given. It demonstrates that several theories from social and learning psychology can be applied to explain the influences in suicide forums. A model showing the mutual influences between forum and user is introduced. Furthermore, possible directions to future research on this issue are discussed, which might take the users' perspective into account.

Language: de