Richman and Rosenbaum report on interviews with suicidal patients and members of their families, followed by family interviews. A control group of patients (and families) with other psychiatric diagnoses was similarly interviewed. The results of the study lead the authors to believe that the rejecting attitudes or death wishes of the family and society play a large role in the genesis of suicide. The therapist is enjoined not to participate in these attitudes. While the authors attempt to give due consideration to other aspects of a multiply determined chain of interacting forces, the impact of the article is to place emphasis on the family's or society's malevolent wishes rather than on intrapsychic causes of aggression that might stem from other more complexly interrelated factors.