Suicides in Denmark 1956.

This article discusses about the suicide patterns and its causes in Denmark. As early as in the middle of the last century the Danish medical doctor J. Kayser, made the first reliable suicide-registration in 1836; and since that time suicides have been registered in Denmark. In this period the suicide-rate has moved up and down and up again. It seems sensible to assume that only on the basis of detailed analysis of the conditions in which suicides are committed in different places and at different times it will be possible to draw conclusions about the causes of the changing rates. In the middle of the last century the scientists, among whom may be mentioned the Danish medial doctor J. Kayser, and the German A. Wagner were apt to admit that several causes influenced the suicide rate; yet Kayser emphasized the despairing mood of the suicide as the real cause, while Wagner was inclined to explain the suicide rate by some general conditions in society. As result of the studies of data collected up to this day from many countries, a theoretical model of the suicide-risk was constructed, building on the assumption that both personal and social factors are of importance to create suicide.