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Risk-taking in the Lives of Parasuicides (Attempted Suicides)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

P. F. Kennedy ,
A. L. Phanjoo  and
W. O. Shekim
P. F. Kennedy
Affiliation:
Medical Research Council Unit for Epidemiological Studies in Psychiatry, University Department of Psychiatry, Edinburgh, EH 10 5HF
A. L. Phanjoo
Affiliation:
Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh, EH10 5HF
W. O. Shekim
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, Royal Hospital for Sick Children, 3 Rillbank Terrace, Edinburgh, EH9 1LF
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Extract

Cohen (1960) defined risk-taking as ‘embarking on a task without being certain of success', and he agreed with Stengel (1958) that it is possible to gain a better understanding of attempted suicide if we regard it as conveying a degree of uncertainty that the attempt will succeed or fail. Investigation after a suicide attempt usually reveals that the patient was at the time uncertain about the toxic effects and lethality of the overdose, and uncertain of whether others would intervene before the poison could take effect. Taking the widely held view that in most cases of so-called attempted suicide the prevailing motives are directed towards survival with all the advantages of having risked self-destruction, it might be argued that the attempt succeeds by avoiding rather than causing death. The alternative term ‘parasuicide’ suggested by Kreitman et al. (1969) is less paradoxical.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 119 , Issue 550 , September 1971 , pp. 281 - 286
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1971 

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