Suicide in Adolescence as a Compromise Formation

Adolescent suicide is poorly understood in the mental health disciplines. To the layman, suicide fascinates and repels. It is an act of supreme heroism or cowardice. It is insanely foolish or an honorable admission of failure. To the shocked survivors of a suicide, it is often seen as a tragic accident, a “failed experiment” or an enviable defeat of the fear of death. Prior to adolescence, suicide is virtually unheard of, so it is natural to conclude sexual maturity plays a decisive role in the emergence of this extreme solution for life's tribulations. Psychoanalytic data has enabled clinicians to trace the progress of sexual fantasies, especially masturbation fantasies that unfold during adolescence. Laufer (1984) writes that by the latter part of adolescence a central masturbation fantasy evolves and becomes fixed in the adolescent's sexual life. If this fantasy is unusually perverse, if it involves, for example, extremely sadistic, masochistic, or homosexual elements, then the young person will see him or herself as abnormal. He or she will not be able to find a sexual outlet that is socially or personally acceptable. In these tragic cases, suicide is often an option the young person will embrace. In this way, suicide has been seen as an escape from, or punishment