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The Internal Suicide Debate Hypothesis: Exploring the Life versus Death Struggle
Author(s) -
Harris Keith M.,
McLean John P.,
Sheffield Jeanie,
Jobes David
Publication year - 2010
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.2010.40.2.181
Subject(s) - suicidal ideation , suicide prevention , poison control , human factors and ergonomics , injury prevention , psychology , occupational safety and health , suicide attempt , suicide risk , clinical psychology , psychiatry , medicine , medical emergency , pathology
Researchers and theorists (e.g., Shneidman, Stengel, Kovacs, and Beck) hyothesized that suicidal people engage in an internal debate, or struggle, over whether to live or die, but few studies have tested its tenability. This study introduces direct assessment of a suicidal debate, revealing new aspects of suicidal ideation. Results, from an online survey ( N = 1,016), showed nearly all suicide‐risk respondents engaged in the debate. In addition, debate frequency accounted for 54% of the variance in suicidality scores, and showed significant associations with other indicators of suicide risk. Likely factors of the debate, reasons for living and dying, showed significant differences by suicidality, and most suicide‐risk participants reported going online for such purposes, demonstrating a behavioral component of the debate.