Year: 1992 Source: Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, v.85, no.6, (June 1992), p.449-452 SIEC No: 19920805

The effect of suggestion on suicide is well established. However, the intrapsychic mechanisms of the contagion of suicides are poorly understood. The literature on suicide clustering & projective identification is presented. A clinical vignette is then used to illustrate a patient’s suicidal behaviour. Taiminen attempts to show that Goldstein’s clarifying model of projective identification has heuristic value in the treatment of suicidal patients when the effect of suggestion is suspected.