51 cases of suicide attempts in the subway were studied to examine whether the method used has psychodynamic significance or is merely adventitious. No single characteristic distinguished subway suicide from all other suicide modalities, although as a group the subway cases had a higher proportion of psychotic & previously suicidal patients than other series quoted in the literature. There were important differences between subjects seeking a traumatic death & those seeking a nontraumatic death. The traumatic group had histories of exposures to violence, other traumatic suicide attempts, hostile or destructive delusions, & many “destroy” words on psychological test protocols. (5 refs.)