"I join all Americans in applauding your dedication and humanitarian efforts to save lives, and wish you even greater success in the years ahead"
Ronald Reagan
"For helping suicidal patients, for understanding the legal framework that surrounds suicide, every clinician should know the content of this book"
-Dr. Pat Estenson
Psychoanalyst
Teaneck, New jersey
This book is designed to fulfill three major goals. First, I want the reader to know that some suicides can be prevented, and concepts are presented which can help to assist those in need. Secondly, I want to inform the reader that most suicides occur within a context-a family, a jail, a psychiatric hospital, and so forth. Careful post-mortem study of the suicide or suicide attempt in these settings can bring about improvements that minimize the likelihood that others will act out. Finally, the mental health professional who encounters a suicide case will, after reading this book, have in hand the tools and concepts needed to pursue the matter in the courts.
The articles reproduced herein represent the best work that has emerged from my various offices during the past thirty-five years. Some of the material is old, as is the author, but is nevertheless meaningful for those who study the preconditions and results of suicidal behavior.
Working in the field of suicide prevention, I have encountered more than my share of personal tragedies, most of them unnecessary tragedies at that. However, I have also observed countless other persons whose desire to die was confronted and redirected into more productive channels by sensitive counselors and therapists. Therein lies the deepest satisfaction that derives from these efforts.
Suicidal people have a great deal in common. In writing about different cases and different theories it is simply not possible to avoid repetition. Hopefully, the reader of this material will understand that the repetition is unavoidable.
Research in suicide prevention has been concentrated on those variables common to suicide attempters and completed suicides. After more than fifty years of contemporary effort (ignoring the mostly European research of earlier centuries) the results have had relatively little impact on current practice. It may be that the time has come to shift our emphasis and study the lives of people who, after seriously considering suicide, changed their lives and went on to find happiness in constructive relationships.
-Dr. James Selkin
About the Author
Dr. James Selkin is a clinical psychologist with many years of experience in the field of suicide prevention. Shortly after earning his Ph.D. in 1963 at the University of Colorado Dr. Selkin was appointed Director of the Emergency Room Psychiatric Service at Denver General Hospital. In that facility, more than one thousand people per year were seen following a suicide attempt. Dr. Selkin assisted the Denver coroner in determining mode of death for equivocal cases, and he conducted a number of psychological autopsies, the best known of which concerned the death of a marine who had been imprisoned by the North Vietnamese for five years, and died immediately upon regaining his freedom.
In the 1970's, Dr. Selkin directed NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) funded research projects focused on evaluating the effectiveness of visiting youthful suicide attempters in their homes after they had been treated in the emergency room at Denver General Hospital. Other projects investigated the demographic characteristics of completed suicides in Denver and Colorado. Some of this work was the subject of Dr. Selkin's testimony in the United States Congress.
Dr. Selkin was the president of the American Association of Suicidology in 1982. He has published more than a dozen articles in professional journals, and authored two books.
This book was written for the purpose of acquainting lawyers with the legal issues surrounding suicide cases, and to educate them about the principles of suicide prevention. Mental health workers and physicians will find the book useful for the same reasons.
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Copyright 2005, Dr. James Selkin, Ph.D. ABEEPP