Suicide is not a rational solution to the subject's situation (though it may seem so) but rather a magical act aimed at achieving 'irrational, delusional, or illusory ends'. The suicide, in his childhood, felt rejected by his parents and reacted to them with hatred which (through identification with the parents) he turned against himself. Suicide may be precipitated by a wish to punish a depriving figure by induction of guilt, a wish to expiate a fantasied act of murder, or by a need to cope counterphobically with an overpowering fear of death. An unconscious denial of the reality of death makes the act possible.