California's Suicide Decline, 1970–1990

From 1970 to 1990 California experienced a 32% decline in suicide, which was particularly pronounced among women, non-whites, the young, and urban dwellers. Suicide declines of over 50% were recorded in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and large decreases occurred in other coastal counties. Additionally, California was the only one of 51 states to show a consistent decline in teenage and young-adult suicide (accompanied by an 88% decrease in teenage drug and other poisoning deaths). Initial investigation of death certification, accident and homicide trends, economic measures, and prevention efforts did not produce an explanation for a suicide decrease of California's magnitude. However, the state does display anomalous trends in certain social measures (reduced divorce, rising non-White population, and rising homicide) that point to multifactorial hypotheses including demographic changes and changed attitudes toward violence. Review of the accuracy of past suicide certification procedures nationally is also indicated.     

‘Translation’ and ‘transformation’ in the analytic situation: Freud – Bion – Laplanche

Following a short introduction to the core theses of Jean Laplanche’s theory of a ‘general seduction’ the author presents the resultant clinical position of the analyst. In the same way that an adult sends ‘enigmatic messages’ to the child, it is the analyst’s task to reopen this primal situation so that the patient can find new ‘translations’ for these messages. Laplanche distinguishes between the function of the analytic frame – which represents and supports attachment – and the ‘sexual’– which is the repressed and constitutes the unconscious. Only the focus on this unconscious facilitates the deconstruction of ‘incorrect’ translations. Accordingly, the analyst, says Laplanche, should not take part in construction – this is a self‐construction of the patient – but only in reconstruction. The author compares this clinical model with Freud’s notions and the ‘transformation processes’ through the alpha function as described by Bion. She illustrates Laplanche’s model and the interpretation strategy with case material.     

Suicides in Beijing,China, 1992–1993

Analyzing the raw data of suicides reported to the Beijing Public Security Bureau in 1992 and 1993, this study reveals for the first time to the academic public in the West the rate, gender difference, the timing, causes, and means of Chinese suicides. In comparison with suicide patterns in Western societies, mainly reported by Durkheim (1897/1951) , Diekstra (1990) and the National Center for Health Statistics (1991) , the findings of this study suggest more differences than similarities. The comparatively low suicide rate (4.8 per 100,000 population), the reversed gender effect (55.4% of suicides are female and 44.6% male), alleged causes, and reported means of suicides in China are explained in terms of history, culture, and social forces. However, the direct relationship of warm seasons to Chinese suicide rates is consistent with what is known about Western societies.     

Drivers’ illusions––no more risk

In this invited address to the International Congress of Applied Psychology, it is argued that traffic psychology has not had a major impact on accident prevention. The factors that have determined this are discussed. A review of the theories and models pertinent to drivers’ risk taking and road user behaviour in general is presented. It is argued that both risk-homeostasis theories and task capability model are not sufficiently precise to be used as a basis for preventive measures. Attitude–behaviour models derived from social psychology have proved to be powerful in identifying motivational factors influencing road user behaviour, but the majority of empirical evidence is based on self-reported rather than observed behaviour. It is argued that individual differences can provide a basis for accident prevention, in particular driver training.