Suicidal mind :: Essays Papers

Suicidal mind I havent read any books on suicide before. So I thought this book was pretty interesting and it gave me a lot of good information on suicide. This book made me derive that there are many commonalities between suicidal people. The states that the common emotion in suicide is hopelessness-helplessness. Dr. Shneidman concludes that the best way to understanding suicide is not with the study of the brain structure, nor study of social statistics and mental disease, but through the study of human emotions. Dr. Shneidman believes that those persons who commit suicide do so to either coiffe a side or to stop unbearable mental pain, due to the constant frustration for important psychological needs. The psychological needs that Dr. Shneidam mentions, were first exposit by Henry A Murray in Explorations in Personality (1938). According to Dr. Shneidman, suicides are partially part to one of the five number of frustrated psychological needs (1) prevented lov e, acceptance, and belonging (2) fractured control, and predictability (3) assaulted self-image and avoidance or shame (4) ruptured key relationships and attendant grief (5) excessive anger, rage and hostility. Suicide isnt so much a factor of the psychological needs but frustration caused by basic needs for that person to function. In general a therapists or psychotherapists goal. Is to recognize a suicidal patients needs. So the therapist can help the patient see the other alternatives instead of suicide. Dr. Shneidman uses three cases from the files of a UCLA thanatologist. That showed, that killing ones self is not easy. The first case is about a lady called Ariel Wilson, who chose self-immolation, but survived with really bad burns on her body. Ariels profound need was succorance, the need to be taken care of, loved and succored. In the second case is a lady called Beatrice, who wrote out her life story enchantment she was Dr. Shneidmans patient. Her method o f suicide was knives and starvation. She was a very different case to Ariel Wilson. Beatrice had a great need for order, sanctuary, and a world that she could depend on, but what in general showed of her intense need was how she was born with fear and anxiety.