Citation

Gerisch B. Psyche (E Klett) 2005; 59(9-10): 918-943.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Ernst Klett Verlag)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

More impressively than almost any other symptom, suicide both refracts gender-specificand condenses the reflexive interplay of culture and nature, gender and sex, inside and outside. If we disregard occasional timid references to artefact- and gender-specific factors, traditional elucidatory models on suicidal tendencies and depression invariably draw upon physical particularities to explain the fact that women make twice as many suicide attempts as men and are much more liable to suffer from depression. In hormonal and biological terms, women's bodies differ from those of men, and this is postulated as the reason for the undeniable gender-specific inclination to suicide and depression. In psychoanalytic thinking on this subject, notably since Freud's pioneering study on "Mourning and Melancholy," there has been discussion of a central experience of loss as etiologically significant for the development of depressive and suicidal tendencies. With reference to the case of a female suicidal patient, the article attempts to scrutinize the connections between femininity, passion, and suicidal inclinations, concluding with a brief discussion of the hypothesis that there may be a gender-specific deficit in women's ability to form symbols to transform the absence of the love-object into symbolic presence.

Language: de

Keywords

human; Depression; suicide; depression; sex difference; risk factor; review; mourning; obsession; melancholia; cultural anthropology; Suicidal tendencies; Obsession; Femininity; Passion