Year: 1987 Source: Suicide & Life-Threatening Behavior, v.17, no.2, (Summer 1987), p.85-92 SIEC No: 19871203

This paper continues a previous report in exploring the use of psychological autopsies to clarify intention in suicide; clinical experience is compared with courtroom experience. Mental disorders are important as part of the suicide constellation, as one element of many interacting factors. The capacity to have the intent to commit suicide–that is, to understand the physical nature of one’s own death–is lost due to mental disorders only under special and unique circumstances.