Notes

THE COMMITTEE FOR THE STUDY OF SUICIDE has issued an annual report 1936–1937 of its activities. At the Psychopathic Hospital of the University of Colorado, under the direction of Dr. Franklin G. Ebaugh, Dr. John Benjamin has continued his psychoanalytic studies of suicidal patients and also his observations in connection with the Rorschach test. The Rorschach test was performed on all of the cases. Thus far the test seems to suggest that differential diagnostic criteria might be established between suicidal fantasies which remain fantasies and those developing into suicidal drives. Members of the staff of the Institute for Psychoanalysis in Chicago, under the direction of Dr. Franz Alexander, are continuing psychoanalytic studies of six patients suffering from suicidal drives. In the Bellevue Hospital in New York City, 1,354 suicidal patients have been seen, of which approximately 27 were studied in particular detail, from the standpoint of psychological and social background as well as of the developmental history of the mental illness. This work is under the general direction of Dr. Karl M. Bowman, Director of the Psychiatric Division of the Hospital; Dr. Nathaniel Ross conducts the work with a staff consisting of a social worker, two secretaries and Dr. Bettina Warburg of the Committee. Work was begun at McLean Hospital on September 15, 1937, with the coöperation of Dr. Franklin Wood, the Medical Director, and Drs. Kenneth Tillotson,