A predictive approach to Freud's formulations regarding suicide

This study of suicide notes involved the deduction of 25 protocol sentences that reflected important specific aspects of Freud's formulations regarding suicide. Independent judges noted the incidence of contents corresponding to the protocol sentences in 33 genuine and 33 simulated notes. Comparisons between genuine and simulated notes revealed that the protocol sentences discriminated significantly as a set in favor of the genuine notes. Individual statements found significantly more frequently in genuine notes indicated loss and/or rejection, preoccupation with a lost person, ambivalence toward a lost person, identification with a lost person, communicating feelings of anger toward oneself but appearing to be angry toward someone else, turning back upon oneself murderous wishes or impulses, and seeing the act as a fulfillment of self-punishment. A frequency count of the sentences in the notes indicated that these statements occurred quite frequently (i.e., at least one-third of the time) in the genuine notes. Implications of the results are discussed.