Risk-taking in the Lives of Parasuicides (Attempted Suicides)

Abstract

Cohen (1960) defined risk-taking as ‘embarking on a task without being certain of success', and he agreed with Stengel (1958) that it is possible to gain a better understanding of attempted suicide if we regard it as conveying a degree of uncertainty that the attempt will succeed or fail. Investigation after a suicide attempt usually reveals that the patient was at the time uncertain about the toxic effects and lethality of the overdose, and uncertain of whether others would intervene before the poison could take effect. Taking the widely held view that in most cases of so-called attempted suicide the prevailing motives are directed towards survival with all the advantages of having risked self-destruction, it might be argued that the attempt succeeds by avoiding rather than causing death. The alternative term ‘parasuicide’ suggested by Kreitman et al. (1969) is less paradoxical.