Mokros considers the place of shame in the understanding of suicide through an informal interpretive analysis of suicide notes left by 2 adolescent males. The analysis is guided by a general theory of human motivation proposed by Scheff (1990, 1994) & Retzinger (1989, 1991) that treats shame as central to understanding human action & experience. Mokros discusses the psychiatric & sociological approaches to the study of suicide & argues that they offer inadequate etiological accounts. (36 refs.)