Suicide and Field Dependency

Abstract

An attempt was made to investigate the hypothesis that psychiatric patients who commit suicide are more field dependent than non-suicidal psychiatric patients. Measures of field dependence were obtained from both groups (N = 84 in each group). It was found that suicide committers were more field dependent than non-suicidal patients.

The Structure of Fantasied Movement in Suicidal Children and Adolescents

“…The cognitive approach has reported that suicidal persons are confused and incorrect in their logic, and constricted and dichotomous in their thinking (e.g., Shneidman, 1976;Levenson, 1972). more dependent on the field of information (Levenson & Neuringer, 1974), and more narrow in visual scanning (Levenson, 1974). Neuringer (1976) has commented on the divergence between investigations of dynamic versus cognitive factors in suicide.…”

Freud and Modern Psychology

“…Depressives have long been described as being "overinvolved" with others (Freud, 1917;Fromm-Reichmann, 1959;Lewis, 1958;Weissman and Payke!, 1974). In addition to this general clinical description, there is empirical evidence of a connection between depression and field-dependence (Witkin, 1965;Levenson and Neuringer, 1974). Of particular interest is the finding (Levenson and Neuringer, 1974) that male psychiatric patients (N = 84) who committed suicide were more field-dependent than a matched group of nonsuicidal patients.…”

“…In addition to this general clinical description, there is empirical evidence of a connection between depression and field-dependence (Witkin, 1965;Levenson and Neuringer, 1974). Of particular interest is the finding (Levenson and Neuringer, 1974) that male psychiatric patients (N = 84) who committed suicide were more field-dependent than a matched group of nonsuicidal patients. Scores on the picture-completion, object-assembly, and block-design sub test of the WAIS (which correlates highly with the rod-and-frame and embedded-figures tests) were used as the measure of field-dependence.…”

Cognition and Suicide: A Methodological Review

“…Suicide attempters did locate the upright less often on the Rod and Frame Test, but no difference was found using the Embedded Figures Test. In studying suicides, Levenson and Neuringer (1974) reviewed the records of 168 subjects for scores of the Picture Completion, Block Design, and Object Assembly subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. Compared with controls matched for intelligence level, the suicidal subjects were found to have lower scores on these three subtests.…”