Touched by Suicide: Bridging The Perspectives of Survivors and Clinicians

This article is a revised version of an invited plenary address given at the 39th Annual Conference of the American Association of Suicidology. The authors, a psychiatrist and a writer survivor, outline and summarize the different ways in which professionals and survivors come to an understanding of suicide. They explain how each group often exists independently and separate from the other—by cognitive and emotional dissonance, by private language, by psychological defenses and miscommunication—and call for dialog. They argue that both perspectives are essential to advance the science of suicidology and to give hope and meaning to those bereaved by suicide.