Patterns of suicide and suicidal behaviors: context and causation

ABSTRACT

The context and causation of suicidal behavior and suicide in many developing countries may vary from most developed societies. In this chapter, four local areas of interest are highlighted with respect to common but less reported precipitating factors in suicide and suicidal behavior. These are family culpability with reference to the present trend of assisted suicide, transgenerational family conflicts resulting in family dysfunction, imitation or copy-cat suicide in a child and suicidal behavior in a psychotic patient. The manifestations of these behaviors are often interwoven into a tangled net of social, religious, cultural, traditional and superstition beliefs that prevent intervention. Even among children, excessive punishment viewed by some as abuse is acceptable. In Trinidad with a rainbow of modern and traditional influences, special training of cultural therapists are recommended for psychological and psychiatric intervention into this sensitive area.