Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:09:34.409Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Are Young Women who Attempt Suicide Hysterical?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Robert D. Goldney
Robert D. Goldney*
Affiliation:
University of Adelaide, Department of Psychiatry, Royal Adelaide Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia, 5000
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Young women who had attempted suicide did not score in a more hysterical manner than women in a comparison group when assessed by the Hysteroid-Obsessoid Questionnaire. Those who made suicide attempts resulting in little physical harm more often demonstrated hysterical traits than those whose attempt involved a serious threat to life. However, even in those subjects the majority did not score in an hysteroid manner, and they certainly scored in a less hysteroid manner than subjects of the comparison group.

These results are in accord with the small literature using standardised assessments, and do not support the clinical view that young women who attempt suicide exhibit marked hysterical traits.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 138 , Issue 2 , February 1981 , pp. 141 - 146
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1981 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bratfos, O. (1971) Attempted suicide. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 47, 38–56.Google Scholar
Caine, T. M. (1965) Obsessoid and hysteroid components of personality In Personality and Personal Illness (ed. G. A. Foulds). London: Tavistock Publications.Google Scholar
Caine, T. M. (1970) Personality and illness. In The Psychological Assessment of Mental and Physical H andicaps (ed. P. Mittler). London: Tavistock Publications.Google Scholar
Caine, T. M. & Hawkins, L. G. (1963) Questionnaire measure of the hysteroid-obsessoid component of personality. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 27, 206–209.Google Scholar
Caine, T. M. & Hope, K. (1967) Manual of the Hysteroid-Obsessoid Questionnaire. London: University of London Press.Google Scholar
Chodoff, P. (1974) The diagnosis of hysteria: an overview. American Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 1073–1078.Google ScholarPubMed
Chodoff, P. & Lyons, H. (1958) Hysteria, the hysterical personality and ‘hysterical’ conversion. American Journal of Psychiatry, 114, 734–740.Google Scholar
Dressler, D. M. Prusoff, B. Mark, H. & Shapiro, D. (1975) Clinical attitudes toward the suicide attempter. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 160, 146–156.Google Scholar
Eastwood, M. R. Henderson, A. S. & Montgomery, F. M. (1972) Personality and parasuicide: methodological problems. Medical Journal of Australia, 1, 170–175.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
EL-Gaaly, A. A. (1974) Social dysfunction in depressives and attempted suicides. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 50, 341–345.Google Scholar
Farberow, N. L. (1950) Personality patterns of suicidal mental hospital patients. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 42, 3–79.Google ScholarPubMed
Foulds, G. A. (1965) Personality and Personal Illness. London: Tavistock Publications.Google Scholar
Foulds, G. A. & Caine, T. M. (1958) Psychoneurotic symptom clusters, trait clusters and psychological tests. Journal of Mental Science, 104, 722–731.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldney, R. D. (1978) Craniopharyngioma simulating anorexia nervosa. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 166, 135–138.Google Scholar
Goldney, R. D. (1979) Attempted Suicide: Correlates of Lethality. MD Thesis, The University of Adelaide.Google Scholar
Goldney, R. D. & Bottrill, A. (1980) Attitudes to patients who attempt suicide. Medical Journal of Australia, (In press).Google Scholar
Goldney, R. D. & Pilowsky, I. (1980) Depression in young women who have attempted suicide. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 14, 203–211.Google Scholar
Hope, K. & Caine, T. M. (1968) The Hysteroid-Obsessoid Questionnaire: a new validation. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 7, 210–215.Google Scholar
Lazare, A. (1971) The hysterical character in psychoanalytic theory. Archives of General Psychiatry, 25, 131–137.Google Scholar
Leonard, C. V. (1977) The MMPI as a suicide predictor. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 45, 367–377.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McEvoy, T. L. (1974) Suicide risk via the Thematic Apperception Test. In Psychological Assessment of Suicidal Risk (ed. C. Neuringer). Springfield: C. C. Thomas.Google Scholar
Marks, P. A. & Haller, D. L. (1977) Now I lay me down for keeps: a study of adolescent suicide attempts. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 33, 390–400.Google Scholar
Morgan, H. G. Burns-Cox, C. J. Pocock, H. & Pottle, S. (1975) Deliberate self-harm: clinical and socioeconomic characteristics of 368 patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 127, 564–574.Google Scholar
Murthy, V. N. (1969) Personality and the nature of suicidal attempts. British Journal of Psychiatry, 115, 791–795.Google Scholar
Nie, N. H. Hull, C. H. Jenkins, J. G. Steinbrenner, K. & Bent, D. H. (1975) Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). 2nd edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Pallis, D. J. & Birtchnell, J. (1976) Personality and suicidal history in psychiatric patients. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 32, 246–253.Google Scholar
Pallis, D. J. & Birtchnell, J. (1977) Seriousness of suicide attempt in relation to personality. British Journal of Psychiatry, 130, 253–259.Google Scholar
Patel, A. R. (1975) Attitudes towards self-poisoning. British Medical Journal, 2, 426–430.Google Scholar
Paykel, E. S. Klerman, G. L. & Prusoff, B. A. (1976) Personality and symptom pattern in depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 129, 327–334.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosen, A. Hales, W. M. & Simon, W. (1954) Classification of suicidal patients. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 18, 397–403.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sclare, A. B. & Hamilton, C. M. (1963) Attempted suicide in Glasgow. British Journal of Psychiatry, 109, 609–615.Google Scholar
Slater, E. (1961) Hysteria 311. Journal of Mental Science, 107, 359–381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slater, E. (1965) The diagnosis of ‘hysteria’. British Medical Journal, i, 1395–1399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vinoda, K. S. (1966) Personality characteristics of attempted suicides. British Journal of Psychiatry, 112, 1143–1150.Google Scholar
Weissman, M. M. (1974) The epidemiology of suicide attempts, 1960–1971. Archives of General Psychiatry, 30, 737–746.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodruff, R. A. Clayton, P. J. & Guze, S. B. (1971) Hysteria: studies of diagnosis, outcome and prevalence. Journal of the American Medical Association, 215, 425–428.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.