Suicides in the Life of Sigmund Freud

 

Suicides in the Life of Sigmund Freud

David Lester

 

 

          Freud was one of the first physician-assisted suicide on September 23, 1939, as his suffering from oral cancer intensified (see www.drdavidlester.net: Biographical Studies, BS 1991, page 51). I only just found out that suicides were common among Freud’s colleagues and even a patient. This is revealed in an article that I came across by Hamilton as I begin my review of research on suicide in 2001.

 

Hamilton, J. W.  (2001). Freud and the suicide of Pauline Silberstein. Psychoanalytic Review, 89, 889-909.

 

          Disappointingly, Hamilton gives us little information about her suicide. It occurred on May 14, 1891, when Freud was in the early stages of his career. He was still using hypnosis in his psychotherapy and had not developed psychoanalysis yet.[1] Pauline was 19, and she jumped from the third floor a building where she was being taken.

 

          Pauline was the wife of Freud’s closest friend from adolescence, Eduard Silberstein, and they lived in Romania. Freud’s correspondence with Silberstein has been published (in 1990). Pauline had come to Viena for treatment with Freud, but there are no details known about her problem or the treatment. Her suicide was reported in a Viennese newspaper. According to the newspaper, she was in a building where people go for treatment, and she threw herself over the balustrade at 4:40 pm. Her head was shattered, and she died instantaneously.

 

          We know nothing about how Freud felt about the suicide of his patient who was the wife of his closest friend.

 

          There are several suicides in Freud’s life. Herbert Silberer, a member of Freud’s group, died by suicide in 1923 by hanging after Freud threw him out of the group. A neurologist and friend, Nathan Weiss, died by suicide on September 13, 1883, by handing in a Viennese public bath, one month after his marriage. Victor Tausk died by suicide on July 3, 1919, after Freud told Helen Deutsch to terminate her psychoanalysis of Tausk. Tausk shot himself while also hanging himself a week before his wedding (see www.drdavidlester.net: Biographical Studies, BS 1991, page 68).

 

          It is noteworthy that these two suicides both occurred when Freud disbarred them from his group.

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[1] Freud’s book on aphasia was published that year.

Why are we failing to prevent suicide?

 

 

WHY ARE WE FAILING TO PREVENT SUICIDE?

 

David Lester

 

 

          There has been a tremendous growth in scholarly articles on suicide over the last 21 years. Looking at publications in English included in PsycInfo, the number has risen from 608 items in 2001 to 2,656 in 2021, 337% increase. How has the suicide rate changed over this period?

 

          According to the National Center for Health Statistics (2023), the suicide rate rose from 10.7 per 100,000 per year in 2001 to 14.1 in 2021, a 32% increase. The correlations between the number of publications on suicide and the suicide rate over this 22-year period is 0.87. The more publications on suicide, the higher the suicide rate. This does not look good. What is happening?

 

          Clearly, lots of academics have obtained tenure and promotion, several grants have been awarded from government and private sources, and many graduate students have produced dissertations on suicide. However, it does appear that we have not learned anything useful about suicide, useful in the sense of helping us prevent suicide.

 

          Of course, it could be argued that, without this growth of “knowledge” about suicide, the suicide rate would have risen even higher. That would be nice to believe, but there is no evidence for this.

 

          Hjelmeland and Knizek (2020) noted that Joiner (2005) proposed a theory of suicide in which three factors explained all suicides: thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness and the acquired capability for self-harm. This became the dominant theory of suicide, aided by the factor that Joiner was the editor of Suicide & Life-Threatening Behavior (SLTB). At their peaks, 45% of the articles in SLTB were on Joiner’s theory, 31% of the articles in the Archives of Suicide Research and 23% in Crisis according to Hjelmeland and Knizek. Not only does Joiner’s theory fail to explain all suicidal behavior, it has rarely been applied to suicides. Almost all of the research testing the theory examines the theory’s relevance for suicidal ideation and attempted suicide. Some of the old stalwarts like Louis Dublin, Ronald Maris and Maurice Farber argued that suicidal ideators and suicide attempters are a different population from suicides, although there may be some overlap. The dominance of Joiner’s theory may, therefore, have impeded progress on understanding and preventing suicide.

 

          Lester, et al. (1975, 1979) proposed a methodology in which we might learn about suicides from studies of attempted suicides, specifically by dividing samples of attempted suicides into groups by the lethality of their attempt (or the seriousness of their suicidal intent) and then extrapolating to suicides, the most lethal of them all. This proposal has been ignored.

 

          In other fields, progress is made. There is a great deal of research on medical diseases and, typically, this research leads to better treatments and longer survival rates, sometimes even cures. Apparently, that is not happening in suicidology.

 

References

 

Lester, D., Beck, A. T. & Trexler, L. (1975). Extrapolation from attempted suicides to completed suicides. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 84, 563-566.

Lester, D., Beck, A. T. & Mitchell, B. (1979). Extrapolation from attempted suicides to completed suicides: a test. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 88, 78-80.