Year: 1994 Source: Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson Inc., 1994. p.165-170 SIEC No: 19950865

This chapter discusses the reaction of psychotherapists to patient suicide. Therapists often react on 2 levels – personally & professionally. Emotional responses to a patient suicide are examined. Guilt, anger & feelings of personal/professional inadequacy were found to be common. Denial was a common defensive mechanism. A strategy that helped many therapists to work through a patient suicide was to review the case & present it to colleagues with the purpose of learning from the experience.