In a study of fifty-six patients admitted to a state hospital for attempted suicide, the author found that all had marked paranoid delusions, whether they were classified as schizophrenic or as manic-depressive. To explain these findings, he proposes the theory that suicide is due to failure of the projection mechanism. The object may then be ambivalently introjected and destroyed by destroying oneself. As long as the patient can project his offending impulses upon an external object, he is safe. The depressed suicidal patient also punishes himself for the guilt he experiences over his erotic feelings for the introjected object. In