Interpersonal Deadlock and the Suicidal Adolescent: an Empirically Based Hypothesis

Details the interaction of a family whose adolescent daughter overdosed. A microanalysis of the family’s interactions was coded using the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB) model of interpersonal behavior. The SASB ovservations of this case suggest that suicidal behavior may be a response to an interpersonal climate in which concurrent, complex messages of both hostile control & hostile autonomy-giving are given to an adolescent by her family. Treatment implications are discussed.