Year: 1972 Source: International Journal of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, v.1, no.3, (August 1972), p.7-30 SIEC No: 19870974

This article presents a detailed recounting of the real life and therapeutic events preceding a suicide attempt by an adolescent schizophrenic identical twin. Some of the meanings of the attempt, which were learned during the patient’s subsequent psychoanalytic therapy, are commonly reported. The attempt was the result of strong, ambivalent dependence on an archaic, sadistic superego and the need to be free of unbearable guilt.