Women who Threaten Suicide; Evidence for an Identifiable Personality Type

Abstract

Female subjects who had threatened but never attempted suicide were compared by means of psychological tests to other suicidal and nonsuicidal criterion groups. These included a group who had attempted suicide and nonsuicidal control groups of psychiatric patients and normals. Individuals who had attempted suicide and nonsuicidal psychiatric patients were found to be very similar. However, individuals who had a history of suicide threats but no attempts were discriminated from all other criterion groups by means of the MMP1 and Leary Interpersonal Check List. It is hypothesized that persons who threaten suicide but do not carry out these threats may be characterologically different from the other criterion groups.