ABSTRACT
Suicide is never going to be a neutral or mild subject. Suicide is about extreme feeling or feeling extreme. Suicide is not a proportional response to anything. Suicide is an unbearable solution to unbearable feeling. The clinical and personal challenge to anyone working with a suicidal patient is also magnified because of how beguiling suicide is. The concept of suicide as understandable within the context of the individual’s psyche is more meaningful than any concept of it being a rational act. An aspect which is immensely challenging to the clinician or helper is the closed mindedness of the suicidal person. They have reached, and seem determined to remain in, a state of tunnel vision, of dictatorship, of totalitarianism of the mind. Along with health based services, psychological therapies, and the Samaritans, there are other very helpful initiatives in the UK for those who are suicidal.
