Suicide: a Psychosocial Phenomenon (IN: Between Survival and Suicide, ed. by Benjamin B Wolman and Herbert H Krauss)

Freud’s intrapsychic & Durkheim’s sociological theories are reviewed & compared. More recent theories deriving from their groundwork are discussed. Finally, an attempt is made to show how social & psychological theories can be unified to give a picture of suicide as an act of a psychologically vulnerable individual responding to particular types of characteristic, socially programmed stresses in society. Self-destructive persons stand at the junction of their character & their culture. (56 Refs)