Values and the suicide threat

The ideas expressed in this paper were developed in the course of a year spent exploring the life philosophies and religious outlooks of suicidal patients. Certain conclusions about the part played by the pa tient's and therapist's values in the suicidal situation seemed to force themselves on me as a result of observing and talking with patients and participating in the daily activities of a center devoted entirely to suicide prevention and research. I have interpreted the values and attitudes that patients and therapists communicated?explicitly and implicitly?in the light of my own conceptual framework regarding the role of values and beliefs in personality development and integration, taken together with my general experience as a psychotherapist. I shall present these conclusions, and then outline some of the general premises regarding the nature of values on which they are based. I might add that I take complete responsibility for these notions. Nothing I say should be construed as representing the policy of the Suicide Pre vention Center.