The Mask of Suicide

Abstract

Although it has been stated that the majority of suicidal people give definite warnings of their suicidal intention, a percentage of suicidal people may dissemble (or mask), possibly 20%. The aim of this psychological autopsy (PA) study was to explore the mask of suicide, examining age and sex of the decedent, and survivors' relationship to the deceased. A PA study in Norway, with 120 survivors/informants, was undertaken. Overall, 80% of informants reported manifest and/or latent content of deception (dissembling); well above the 20% suggested. Three main themes emerged from the interviews of the 95 survivors that were related to the mask. In the opinion of the bereaved, reasons for the mask were due to: 1) Inability to adjust/ impairment; 2) Relational problems; and 3) Weakened resilience. Differences in masking or (self) deception were found in the age of the decedent, but not in sex, nor in the survivors' closeness of the relationship. Older deceased people were perceived to exhibit more dissembling, associated to the suicide. Limitations are noted in this beginning study into the mask of suicide, and it is concluded that much greater research is needed to unmask the dangerous dissembling, maybe in some, self-deception.

Forced to move on: An interview study with survivors who have lost a relative to suicide

“…The “mask” that survivors in this study said their relative exhibited before the suicide made it difficult for them to predict the suicide. When the direction of death is chosen it is not uncommon for a suicidal person to hide this to have the opportunity to commit suicide (Ringel, 1976 ; Leenaars et al, 2020 ; Törnblom et al, 2013 ).…”

Efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on the treatment of anxiety and post traumatic stress in post COVID patients

“…We need to imbibe values which in the long run become virtues to develop better communication and social skills. In the opinion of the bereaved, reasons for the dissembling, conscious and/ or unconscious, were due to: 1) Inability to adjust/ impairment; 2) Relational problems; and 3) Weakened resilience (Leenars, Dieserud, & Wenckstern, 2020). And even for the body, we need to understand how it could be protected from various climate conditions as mentioned in Ayurveda (Charaka, 2020).…”

Reflections from Research Practice

“…These contributions are of course limited in their origin from the perspective of an 'early career' qualitative researcher: whose work regularly involves ongoing negotiation of the signifiers or indicators of phenomena, their signified or constructed/experienced meanings, and a general analytical search for ways of uniting these into meaningful signs which make sense in relation to existing ecologies of ideas and meanings I visit in various projects (see 'Meaning' in Given (2011)). As would be realists then, this article perhaps offers you food for thought in your own attempts in joining others to make inroads, into understanding the naturalistic and manufactured 'causes' of the universe at a deeper level than as they appear in their surface forms (Leenaars et al, 2020;Bratianu et al, 2020).…”