In this paper, Lester draws a parallel between 2 types of strategies in suicide research: approaching suicide as a chronic process or as an acute process, & the various dichotomies of suicidal individuals. For example, the typical adolescent suicide (acute suicidal type) appears to be responding impulsively to an immediate interpersonal stress, whereas the typical older suicide (chronic suicidal type) appears to be responding to a life-long pattern of suffering or disturbed functioning. (GW)