Menninger has argued that the suicidal behavior of psychotics is more serious than such behavior of neurotics. A study of attempted suicides showed that 102 neurotics and 90 psychotics (of 246 consecutive attempted suicides) did not differ in their suicidal intent as measured by self-report and by an objective suicidal intent scale, or in the medical lethality of their attempts. Thus, no support was found for Menninger's hypothesis.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BeckA.HermanI.SchuylerD.Development of suicidal intent scales. In BeckA.ResnickH.LettieriD. (Eds.), The prediction of suicide. Bowie, Md: Charles, 1974. Pp. 45–56. (a)
2.
BeckA.WardC.MendelsonM.MockJ.ErbaughJ.An inventory for measuring depression. Arch. gen. Psychiat., 1961, 4, 55–63.
3.
BeckA.WeissmanA.LesterD.The measurement of pessimism. J. consult. clin. Psychol., 1974, 42, 861–865. (b)
4.
LesterD.Suicidal behavior, sex and mental disorder. Psychol. Rep., 1970, 27, 61–62.
5.
LesterD.Why people kill themselves. Springfield: Thomas, 1972.
6.
LesterD.BeckA.Attempted suicide: Correlates of increasing medical lethality. Psychol. Rep., 1975, 37, 1236–1238.
7.
MenningerK.Man against himself. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1938.
