Abstract

This is a study of the psychology of college students who are seriously suicidal. Fifty college students who had made suicide attempts were studied in detail over a 5-year period. Short term therapy was administered in most cases and long term therapy in some. Psychological tests (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Rorschach, Thematic Apperception Test, Sentence Completion, Figure Drawing, and Word Association) were performed and used as an independent check on the data derived from the interviews. The study indicates the ways in which death has become a way of life for these students--an integral, ongoing part of their adaptation. It traces the origin of this adaptation in a family relationship that the students perceived as requiring their emotional extinction. These students are tied to their parents in a kind of death knot and have become overly suicidal when live--coming to college, graduating, becoming seriously involved with another person--threatens to unravel this knot.