A psychodynamic approach to suicide: a critical and selective review

This paper begins by critically exploring Freudian and post-Freudian understandings of suicide, although due to limitations of space it is not comprehensive. Several examples drawn from clinical practice are then considered in relation to the theoretical ideas previously discussed. The paper then moves on to reconsider psychodynamic approaches to suicidal clients from a Levinasian ethical position. The possibility that suicide may be a logical part of what it is to be human, rather than an indication of mental illness, is advanced.