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The following attempt to compare the findings in Jessie's case with those in the literature is in no sense a complete bibliographical study. The magnitude of such a task can be seen from the thickness of Farberow's “Bibliography on Suicide and Suicide Prevention” (Farberow, 1969). For those with a particular interest in the topic, Litman's “Sigmund Freud on Suicide” (Litman, 1967) provides an excellent review of Freud's thinking on the subject, and Warren's “On Suicide” summarises much recent literature, giving some guidance through the mass of current writing. (Warren, 1976).
The emphasis in this article is on the literature since 1960 which I have found particularly useful; inevitably there will be relevant material which I have not encountered. In order to facilitate comparison with Jessie's material, I have structured this part exactly as Part I was structured, so that those wishing to refer to the clinical material relevant to any one section will find it in the correspondingly numbered section of Part I.
Many writers have drawn attention to the unusually marked parental hostility frequently found in cases of adolescent suicide (Bender and Schiller, 1937; Gould, 1965; Haim, 1969; Havens, 1969; Meerloo, 1968; ; Schrut, 1964; Stone, 1973). This hostility is often conscious or unusually close to consciousness, and expressed in very direct as well as subtle ways. I fully agree with Stone (1973) that “Prognostic statements about suicidal adolescents… are meaningless without inclusion of the parental factor”. In much of the literature, however, parental hostility is mentioned scarcely or not at all; Havens (1969) has expanded upon therapists’ need to deny “really” murderous wishes.
Mental illness and the uttering of suicide threats on the part of family members are