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Traumatic Subjective Experiences Invite Suicide

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Abstract

The overwhelming events that lead to post-traumatic stress disorders and similar states are commonly understood to arise from noxious external events. It is however the unmasterable subjective experiences such events provoke that injure the mind and ultimately the brain. Further, traumatic overarousal may arise from inner affective deluge with minimal external stimulation. Affects that promote suicide when sufficiently intense are reviewed; we propose that suicidal crises are often marked by repetitions (flashbacks) of these affects as they were originally endured in past traumatic experiences. Further, recurrent overwhelming suicidal states may retraumatize patients (patients who survive suicide attempts survive attempted murders, albeit at their own hands). We propose that repeated affective traumatization by unendurable crises corrodes the capacity for hope and erodes the ability to make and maintain loving attachments.

John T. Maltsberger, Mark J. Goldblatt, Elsa Ronningstam, Igor Weinberg, Mark Schechter, “Traumatic Subjective Experiences Invite Suicide”, Psychodynamic Psychiatry: The Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry, December 2011, Vol. 39, No. 4, pp. 671–693, Guilford Press © the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry, 2011, Reprinted with permission of Guilford Press.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Emotionally dependent patients of this kind have sometimes been called “love addicts,” because loss of sustaining outside supports can throw them into agitated depressions that superficially resemble withdrawal states.

  2. 2.

    Names have been changed, and personal clinical material in this article has been disguised.

  3. 3.

    Conversely, another patient, recovering from a third suicide attempt, decided she was alienating her family with the attempts and that she had to stop trying to kill herself, because her behavior was weakening her love for them and theirs for her.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, McLean Hospital and the Harvard Medical School, Belmont, MA, USA

    John T. Maltsberger M.D., Mark J. Goldblatt M.D., Elsa Ronningstam Ph.D. & Igor Weinberg Ph.D.

  2. North Shore Mental Health Center, Salem, MA, USA

    Mark Schechter M.D.

  3. Department of Psychiatry, The Harvard Medical School, Belmont, MA, USA

    Mark Schechter M.D.

Authors
  1. John T. Maltsberger M.D.
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  2. Mark J. Goldblatt M.D.
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  3. Elsa Ronningstam Ph.D.
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  4. Igor Weinberg Ph.D.
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  5. Mark Schechter M.D.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mark J. Goldblatt M.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Sensory Organs, Suicide Prevention Center, Sant’Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Maurizio Pompili

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Maltsberger, J.T., Goldblatt, M.J., Ronningstam, E., Weinberg, I., Schechter, M. (2018). Traumatic Subjective Experiences Invite Suicide. In: Pompili, M. (eds) Phenomenology of Suicide. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47976-7_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47976-7_9

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