Shulman presents case studies of historical figures who he believes committed suicide when they were overpowered by a sense of failure or loss, or both. The cases of Forrestal, Rebreanu, Fadeyev, Mishima, Mayakovsky, Zweig, Lindsay, Teasdale, & Tsvetayeva are discussed. It is stated that all of these people had developed grandiose, but unstable, illusions on which to base their lives because they were all retreating from feeling like social outcasts in their families or their communities.