The author contends that the 2 common methods used to assess suicide potential, the mental state examination & the examiner’s intuition, are not good enough. He feels that his formulation of suicide risk is more reliable & discusses in detail the 5 components involved: past responses to stress; vulnerability to aloneness, self-contempt or murderous rage; exterior sustaining resources; death fantasies, & the patient’s capacity for reality testing. (GW)