Using data from the Suicide Prevention Centre & Veteran’s Administration Research Unit, the possibility that self-destruction is the result of unworthy & unsuccessful striving is explored. Conclusions include interpersonal problems being more important in younger populations while intrapersonal problems are more important in older groups. Self-destruction is explained in psychoanalytic terms. Cases are used to describe suicides in terms of Erikson’s theory of identity formation. (32 refs.) (RM)