Citation

Bender L, Schilder P. Am. J. Orthopsychiatry 1937; 7(2): 225-234.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1937, American Orthopsychiatric Association, Publisher Wiley Blackwell)

DOI

10.1111/j.1939-0025.1937.tb05280.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article discusses, suicidal preoccupations and attempts in children. The suicidal threat asserts the independence of the child and punishes those who have interfered with the child. There is hardly any suicidal case in which the motive of spite does not play an important part. This was not obvious in the two epileptic cases mentioned above. In both cases resentment against parents was present and we may expect that the general aggressiveness found in epileptics has played some part. It is doubtful whether children expect to succeed in committing suicide. It may be that they hope to be thwarted and thus be assured of love and care. These motives are not fully conscious even in the children who react to an immediate situation. The child reacts to the deprivation concerning love by aggression which punishes the parents if they are considered responsible. It is destructive and self destructive. Death may mean then in this connection destruction. This last observation leads to the question, what methods the children use in their suicidal wishes and attempts. In the great majority of cases the children threaten to jump out of the window which is seemingly the simplest way of escape. The suicidal attempt constitutes also a punishment against the surroundings and a method to get a greater amount of love. The suicidal death represents also a reunion with the love object in love and peace. There may be also an identification with a dead love object. Suicides which follow disappointments in love in children are again attempts to regain the love object which in the deeper sense is always one of the parents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

Keywords

Child Attitudes; Motivation; Psychoanalytic Interpretation; Suicide; Threat