ABSTRACT
Suicidal actions do not always result in death. Many individuals survive, while others gamble, not knowing whether or not they will survive the self-destructive act. Russian roulette and dueling are good examples of this suicidal risk-taking. In Russian roulette, an individual places one bullet in the cylinder of a six-shot revolver, spins the cylinder, places the gun to his head and pulls the trigger. The individual has a one in six chance of dying, and those who engage in this behavior would seem to have a self-destructive wish. Dueling was popular in Europe and America for many hundreds of years. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, duels were commonly fought with swords, but the use of firearms eventually took over. Duels were based on a code of honor and could end with first blood or death. The most famous duel in the United States was between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr on July 11, 1804.
