TY  - JOUR
PY  - 1976//
TI  - Suicide survivors: psychotherapeutic implications of egocide
JO  - Suicide and life-threatening behavior
A1  - Rosen, D. H.
SP  - 209
EP  - 215
VL  - 6
IS  - 4
N2  - Interviews with seven of ten known survivors of jumps from the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge revealed that all of them experienced transcendence and spiritual rebirth phenomena. The psychotherapeutic implications of these findings lie in helping depressed and suicidal individuals confront death in a symbolic and meaningful way. The issue is one of "egocide" (symbolic suicide) and aiding individuals in the rebirth process. In this way actual suicides can be prevented. When individuals experience partial "deaths" (like loss, failure, rejection, depression, suicidal states, or negative parts of their egos), there is opportunity for "rebirth" (positive transformation, creative change, growth, and significant spiritual reawakening). The therapeutic task is to help individuals differentiate between "ego death" and total death and to discover through the creative process of psychotherapy that overt suicide need not be a solution.
LA  - 
SN  - 0363-0234
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -