SUICIDE AND MENTAL DISORDER: A NECESSARY CRITIQUE

Abstract

This article analyzes, from a critical and reflexive approach, the relationship between suicide and mental disorder. The figure provided by the World Health Organization reporting that 90% of suicides are due to a mental disorder is debated. It is concluded that an uncritical acceptance of this figure implies: 1) a confusion between a risk factor and a psychiatric causality, 2) a reductionist idea of suicide and suicidal behavior seen as a “symptom”, a “natural” evolution, or even as a mental disorder in itself, and 3) finally, it involves the cancellation of the intimate nucleus of the suicidal phenomenon that is the decision-action capacity of a person-in-a-context. These conclusions help us to think about suicide in a way that goes beyond the biomedical approach and the diagnostic factor.

Keywords

• mental disorders
• psychopathology
• suicide
• suicide attempt
• risk factors