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10 - Suicide prevention for adolescents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 December 2009

Israel Orbach
Affiliation:
Professor, Department of Psychology, Bar-llan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel 52900 e-mail: orbachi@mail.biu.ac.il tel: +972-353-18174, fax: +972-353-50267
Robert A. King
Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
Alan Apter
Affiliation:
Tel-Aviv University
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Summary

Suicide and suicide attempts among adolescents are growing at an alarming rate (Diekstra and Garnefski, 1995). Suicide in adolescents, as it is in adults, is an escape from intolerable mental pain, hopelessness, and meaninglessness of their lives into an illusion of peacefulness (Baumeister, 1990; Orbach, 1988; Range, 1992; Shneidman, 1985, 1996). Adolescence, with the dramatic, transitional changes it brings, is the time in life when self-destruction erupts for the first time as an epidemic. This fact can be attributed to the many risks that accompany this transition. Many risk factors for suicide have been identified in adolescents: past suicide attempts, depression, feelings of hopelessness, drug abuse, alcoholism, sexual abuse, mental disorders, isolation, suicide in the family or by a friend, accumulation of negative life events, problems with anger control, low self-esteem, school failure, homosexuality, identity problems, family problems, learning difficulties, difficulties in problem solving, and others (Maris, 1991; Orbach, 1997). The eruption of the suicide epidemic at adolescence is of great concern and has led the efforts to initiate programs for prevention for the young. This chapter presents major approaches, principles, and techniques of suicide prevention programs prevalent in schools and prevention centers. Before the presentation of these, however, we need to gain some understanding into the experiences of the suicidal person as well as into some aspects of the adolescents' inner world. I will focus on these mostly from a psychodynamic perspective.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2003

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  • Suicide prevention for adolescents
    • By Israel Orbach, Professor, Department of Psychology, Bar-llan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel 52900 e-mail: orbachi@mail.biu.ac.il tel: +972-353-18174, fax: +972-353-50267
  • Edited by Robert A. King, Yale University, Connecticut, Alan Apter, Tel-Aviv University
  • Book: Suicide in Children and Adolescents
  • Online publication: 04 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511550423.011
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  • Suicide prevention for adolescents
    • By Israel Orbach, Professor, Department of Psychology, Bar-llan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel 52900 e-mail: orbachi@mail.biu.ac.il tel: +972-353-18174, fax: +972-353-50267
  • Edited by Robert A. King, Yale University, Connecticut, Alan Apter, Tel-Aviv University
  • Book: Suicide in Children and Adolescents
  • Online publication: 04 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511550423.011
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Suicide prevention for adolescents
    • By Israel Orbach, Professor, Department of Psychology, Bar-llan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel 52900 e-mail: orbachi@mail.biu.ac.il tel: +972-353-18174, fax: +972-353-50267
  • Edited by Robert A. King, Yale University, Connecticut, Alan Apter, Tel-Aviv University
  • Book: Suicide in Children and Adolescents
  • Online publication: 04 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511550423.011
Available formats
×