This study examined psychological characteristics of 56 patients at Brooklyn N.Y. State Hospital who had attempted suicide. 75% were previously diagnosed as dementia praecox, paranoid type. The results of the clinical examination revealed marked paranoid delusions in all of the 56 patients. Explanations of these findings, based on the psychoanalytic theories of Freud, Zilboorg, & Menninger, are presented. (9 refs) (SC)