The Special Characteristics of Suicide in Hospital In-Patients

Abstract

A category of suicide which only accounts for about 5% of the annual suicidal deaths in the country may at first seem unimportant. Suicide is seen around the world in different races and cultures, so it is a fact of human nature. However, the suicide of an in-patient is uncommon, and produces great guilt in doctors and nurses when it happens. The result is often a defensive fatalism. However, if we do not allow feeling to block thought and observation, it is possible to learn from each of these deaths something about human beings which we can use in the practice of psychiatry.