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In a previous article (The Psychoanalytic Review, Vol. XX, No. 3, July, 1933) a brief general survey of the suicide problem was made and an outline of the plans for subsequent researches was presented in some detail. These researches are now progressing along the different lines suggested, and the findings will be reported from time to time as the various stages of the investigation focalize into definitely informative channels. At the present time it was thought desirable to elaborate a little more on the general relationships of suicide to other biological phenomena.
The first article in this series contains the following statement of the situation from a biologic viewpoint: “In suicide we have a curious phenomenon from an orthodox biologic viewpoint—an apparent contradiction of that solidly founded law of self-preservation at any price and the will to live shared by all living creatures—a phenomenon not shared by sub-human forms except to those innate dedifferentiation processes, where the association of cells condemns them to death and which are at all times compensated for in part. … From the numerous unsuccessful attempts at suicide on record, from the prevalence of suicidal thoughts periodically appearing in people who never take action, and from extensive psychoanalytic studies, one is justified in inferring that suicidal trends are present in practically all persons, but at least some of these reactions are different from actual suicide itself, which is a complex affair, appearing in its’ fullest expression only in those who have a particular type of integration in which the elements have a specific pathological orientation in the adaptive functions. Personally I believe it to be the most profound pathologic process in the field of psychology.”
There are many authorities who do not agree with any statement that asserts or infers that all persons committing suicide are psychotic, but practically all are willing to concede that there is at least “something temp