Based on a micro-study drawn from the author’s personal journals & an analysis of the national organization’s printed materials, this article explores how a particular view of the ‘self’ functions in a group where stories of tragedy are told. An interpretive analysis of the self-help process, as experienced in an SOS (Survivors of Suicide) group, suggests that the group’s methods of moving toward mutual understanding & recovery rely on a construction of the ‘self’ having experienced this particular loss. (9 refs)