Menninger’s Motives for Suicide in the Notes of Completed and Attempted Suicides

Brevard, Lester & Yang (1990), studying Menninger’s motives for suicide, reported more evidence for the wish to be killed in suicide notes for completed suicides than in notes for attempters; however, they did not control for sex & age. A comparison of notes written by completed & attempted suicides that controlled for age & sex showed no differences in the presence of content which reflected Menninger’s 3 motives for sucide, including the wish to be killed. (4 refs.)