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The Benefit of Forgetting Suicidal Ideation
Author(s) -
Goldney Robert D.,
Winefield Anthony H.,
Winefield Helen R.,
Saebel Judith
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
suicide and life‐threatening behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.544
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1943-278X
pISSN - 0363-0234
DOI - 10.1521/suli.2009.39.1.33
Subject(s) - forgetting , suicidal ideation , psychology , ideation , mental health , clinical psychology , mechanism (biology) , motivated forgetting , psychiatry , suicide prevention , poison control , medicine , cognitive psychology , medical emergency , philosophy , epistemology , cognitive science
In a sample of young adult Australians, those who had had suicidal ideation but who did not acknowledge ever having had it when asked 4 years later, were experiencing better mental health, as demonstrated by significantly better functioning on a range of psychometric measures, than those who recalled it. These results are consistent with several recent reports and indicate that forgetting painful events such as suicidal ideation is an adaptive defense mechanism. This has implications in terms of therapy focusing on contemporaneous events and the future, rather than on the past.