Suicide

Suicide, however, can be prevented. If you are genuinely and persistently troubled by suicidal thoughts, be quick to seek help from psychiatric sources. If a friend discusses such thoughts with you, be sympathetic and toler­ant of his problems —and guide him firmly to a psychiatrist, physician or other responsible source of help. The potential suicide should not be left alone, even for a minute.

The magnitude of the suicide problem in the United States is not generally appreciated. Suicide is three times as common as murder.

Deaths from Psychogenic Causes

It may come as a surprise that three out of the five principal causes of death in the col­lege age bracket are essentially psychogenic in origin, namely, accidents, suicide, and homicide. The unconscious trap which ac­counts for suicide itself is also responsible for "purposive accidents," which often end fatally

Accidents don't just happen; they are caused; and the cause of a high proportion of these ''accidentally on purpose" events is to be found in the unconscious mind. The at < ident prone individual unconsciously wants to hurt or kill himself. Failing, or even par­tially succeeding, he feels inwardly impelled to try again.

Automobile accidents frequently occur un­der circumstances that give rise to the suspi­cion that the accident was an attempted, or successful, suicide. One can only guess at the actual numbers, but the high toll of motor-vehicle accidents and fatalities in the late teens and twenties suggests that it is not in­considerable. Maladjusted young men now make up a larger share than ever before of the accident-prone group. They often use cars as misdirected instruments of power.

We must therefore list unconsciously moti­vated "purposive accidents" along with psy­choses, neuroses, alcohol and drug addiction, gambling, promiscuity, self-mutilation, delin­quent and antisocial behavior, suicide itself, and other forms of "partial suicide" as exhibi­tions of mental illness.