ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to use a psychodynamic perspective to predict suicide over the course of late adolescence, uses the unique set of prospective and longitudinal data available on individual male adolescents entering universal military service in the Israeli Defence Force. The characteristics on which each subject was rated included some items as parental divorce or death, excessive expectations of service, estrangement from family, mood lability, denial of difficulties, a psychiatric diagnosis given at pre-induction screening, and the presence of conduct disorder. Some evidence suggests that the suicide attempts of individuals with dependent vulnerabilities tend to be impulsive, manipulative, and non-lethal, whereas those of self-critical individuals are more planned and serious. Many suicides among members of elite units seemed to fit the mould of self-critical depression. These were perfectionistic youth who set unrealistically high goals for themselves and for whom a perceived failure to achieve these can lead to a serious or lethal suicide attempt.
