Resources Library

Crisis Intervention of Houston, Inc.

Stengel Award 1981 – Jean Pierre Soubrier

A brief biography of Jean Pierre Soubrier, winner of the 1981 Stengel Award. Following is the procedure for nominating a possible candidate. (DD)

Suicide and the Standard of Care: Optimal vs. Acceptable

Discusses the accepted standard of care in the treatment of suicidal patients from the perspectives of the law, malpractice insurance claims, the mental health professions & the ideal. Although attention to potential malpractice issues is necessary & appropriate, what appear to result are an acceptance of minimal standards & the practice of defensive care. It […]

Recognition and Management of the Seriously Suicidal Patient

Death by suicide is a common occurrence. Actually, as many people die by suicide as of hepatic cirrhosis. The recognition of the serious suicidal threat is obviously of the highest importance. The family physician is usually the first to see the suicidal patient. This article helps the physician to recognize the signs of impending suicide.

Culture and Mental Disorder: A Study of Attempted Suicide

Authors studied the relationship of mental illness and social factors using a sample of individuals (Groups A & B) admitted to a general hospital after attempted suicide. Group A included sociopathic personality, chronic alcoholism and conversion reaction. Group B were manic depressives and chronic brain sydrome. Using clinical psychiatric information & social data of each […]

Suicide as a Factor in Public Health

A Study of Medico-Legal Deaths in a Rural Area of Pondicherry, South India

Symbolmaking and Suicide: Hart Crane (1899-1932)

Presents an extensive discussion of various life events leading to the suicide of Hart Crane. Examines his major patterns of imagery & habits of poetic style in order to determine why they were unsuccessful in helping him to establish an identity & why this failure of his characteristic symbolmaking capacity resulted in a failure of […]

Suicide, Suicide Attempts, and Weather

67 suicides & 8373 suicide attempts in Houston were studied in terms of 11 weather variables. No significant relationship between attempts and/or suicides and weather/seasonal phenomena was found. (RA)

Suicide and Weather

The author attempted to replicate the findings of an earlier study, in which the only significant relationship between weather & completed suicide was found when considering barometric pressure along with relative humidity. The present study failed to replicate this finding, suggesting that this 1 significant value had occurred by chance in the earlier study. It […]

Recurrent Self-Mutilation: a Case Study in Morbid Mood and Behaviour

Some Aspects of Self-Mutilation in the General Population of a Large Psychiatric Hospital

Incidence of Suicidal Attempts in an Urban Community

Suicide: Answering the Cry for Help

Suicide is among the first ten causes of adult deaths in the United States. It is helpful for social workers and other professionals to be able to recognize possible suicides, evaluate the suicidal risk, and recommend an appropriate course of treatment. Because of the seriousness of suicidal problems, consultation should always be sought.

On the Improvement of Suicide Determination

This article describes a form developed to improve data collection in the medical examination of cases of nonnatural death. The form covers 20 personal & social variables relevant to suicide. Compared to the original form, a significant increase in the recording of pertinent positive & negative information related to suicide was found. Increases were most […]

Reducing Childhood Disability in the 80’s

This article discusses childhood disabilities from an international prespective. In 1975, about 10% of the world’s children suffered from 1 or more disabilities. The authors outline patterns & causes of disabilities. A section on mental illness & psychosocial problems is included, outlining problems in prevention & treatment. They provide several strategies for change, both national […]

Attempted Suicide and Body Image

This study tests the hypothesis that suicidal individuals differ in their body-image boundary dimensions from nonsuicidal individuals. The author examined Rorschach protocols from a sample of subjects who had attempted suicide & control subjects. The prediction was not supported. The author concludes that these results contribute to the growing body of evidence challenging the assumption […]

The Identification of Suicidal Behavior in Females by the use of the Rorschach

Four subject groups (suicidal, neuropsychiatric controls, criminal offenders, and normal controls) had Rorschach protocols scored for 2 dimensions hypothesized to discriminate suicidal from non-suicidal patients. Neither dimension discriminated the suicidal group.

Multiple Determinants of Suicidal Efforts

This article begins by discussing the problems with completely understanding suicide – since the victims’ motives can no longer be examined directly. Next, the author discusses the mixed goals of suicide victims, for example, to return to infancy, to join someone who has died, or for vengeance or self-punishment. The author concludes that students of […]

Suicide by Asthma

This article describes the cases of 5 patients with asthma who died despite treatment. The authors found certain characteristics which separated the 5 from those who respond favorably to treatment, & which indicate the 5 deaths were suicides. All 5 had serious defects of personality organization, including strong dependent longings & an inability to relate […]

Suicide in Alcoholics

Citing 7 prior studies, this article describes follow-up techniques used in 2 studies of 131 & 87 chronic alcoholics, of whom males suicided at a rate 75-85 times expected rates. Subjects more often had received general medical than psychiatric care. Value of public education re: suicidal communication among chromic alcoholics was stressed, as was the […]

Affective States of Patients Immediately Preceding Suicide

Study of 61 patients in a psychiatric facility who committed suicide, found that in the 24 hours prior to death they were more frequently noted as “Calm” than control group. This finding may not have general applicability, but in a hospital setting it could point to a high risk candidate for suicide as someone whose […]

Suicide During an LSD Reaction

The authors of this article assert that mescaline & LSD can facilitate a breakdown of personality integration that can outlast the drugged state. This state may allow individuals to take their own lives who otherwise might not. A case report is provided of a college student who committed suicide while on LSD. He had given […]