Understanding Adolescent Suicide Attempts: The Impact of Family and Pubertal Development
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Adolescent suicide, suicide attempts, family dynamics, epidemiology, France, Durkheim theory, psychoanalysis, mental health, puberty
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Abstract
Explore the complex relationship between adolescence and suicidal behavior, and discover how family dynamics and societal pressures contribute to this critical issue. This insightful analysis draws on the work of renowned sociologist Émile Durkheim and Freudian psychoanalysis to shed light on the underlying causes of adolescent suicide attempts. Learn how the struggle to cope with pubertal changes and the desire to detach from childhood can lead to acute psychopathological disorders, and understand the importance of strong social integration in preventing egoistic suicide. With alarming statistics revealing over 8,900 deaths due to suicide in France in 2021, this examination provides a nuanced understanding of the factors driving adolescent suicidal behavior, offering a valuable resource for those seeking to support vulnerable individuals during this critical life stage.
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[...] In a contrary situation, suicides take a fatalistic turn. (Durkheim E The Suicide, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France) Durkheim continues in his interpretation that the family situation also influences the suicide rate in the world, particularly in France. Although P. Besnard conceives that Durkheim's thesis is an empiricism, estimating that it only addresses the 'problem of sociological explanation of important and lasting differences' (Durkheim E ibid) without ever resolving it, Durkheim's project on the social causality of suicide remains more relevant to shed light on the phenomenon. [...]
[...] These latter take a place as important as the 'fantasies of primitive scene' in the psychic life. Paul-Claude Lacamier indicates that this concept 'designates the central fantasy of the antoedipian constellation, fantasies at the end of which the subject sees himself as a generator of his own existence.' By self-generation, it is a matter of the way the adolescent imagines himself to be issued from a founding hero. (D. Anzieu, 1984) Self-generation allows the organization of therapeutic groups. TS can also manifest itself in other ways, through the death drive and the drive for disconnection. [...]
[...] Recently, in February 2024, the National Suicide Observatory urged statisticians to interpret the evolution of data on suicide with caution and circumspection, as there are scientific and statistical data on suicide that bring about relief and others that raise suspicion. In fact, suicide statistics have existed for over a century and a half and are surrounded by a 'climate of suspicion'. It is through this situation that sociologists postulate that suicide is a social fact. Durkheim indeed posits that this phenomenon depends on two sociological origins, 'integration and regulation'. If the individual poorly integrates into society, they may commit suicide or be prone to suicide, but in this case, it is a matter of egoistic suicide. [...]
[...] By not accepting this change that they do not expect, they can say to themselves through their 'instinctual' reality by comparing themselves to other adolescents of the same age and of an immediately older age who do not have beards: 'Why do I already have a beard when someone older than me does not? I am precocious. I am different from others. I do not admit my bodily and pubertal development. No, no, no' (emergence of infantile distresses as well as child traumas). [...]
[...] The 'depressive dimension and the impulsive dimension' shed light on the existence of the plurality of 'semiological and psychopathological tables' underlying the suicidal act. In reality, adolescent suicide attempts result from a depression in which they contract a type of acute psychopathological disorder, which can vary. However, if we establish a description and taxonomic classification of the disorder, we cannot certainly identify it as being truly a 'pathology' in the strict sense. On the other hand, our ultimate reference is the 'suicidal act' of the adolescent to evaluate his mental state. [...]
