ABSTRACT
A distinguished British physician once wrote: "By far the most significant discovery of mental science is the power of love to protect and restore the mind." Similarly, American psychoanalyst Reuben Fine has asserted that, "at bottom, the psychoanalytic explanation of mental illness is a simple equation: love equals mental health, lovelessness equals mental illness. According to the World Health Organization, millions of people worldwide debate Hamlet's question with themselves, and between 10 and 20 million each year decide that it is better "not to be" and attempt suicide, and about 1.5 million actually succeed. Depression is often classified as one of the neuroses, a broad category of mental illnesses that do not involve radical disconnection from reality. Numerous clinical studies of suicide attempters and completers have found that, on average, they score high on impulsivity and aggression and higher rates of alcoholism compared with people in general.
