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Biomedical subjects

H Hendin

Publications and source records attributed to H Hendin.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1994

Fall from power: suicide of an executive.

An influential corporate executive apparently killed himself and two others when faced with public exposure and perhaps imprisonment for illegal use of his corporate position to raise money for political and charitable causes he favored. Clinical and psychological descriptions of such cases are rare. Because an extensive psychological autopsy enabled a detailed description of this case, it is presented with the aim of shedding light on a type of suicide that needs to be understood.

Accidents, Aviation↗
PubMed1993

Physician-assisted suicide: the dangers of legalization.

The authors examine physician-assisted suicide in the light of what is known about suicide and terminal illness, exploring the potential for abuse if legalization occurs. The elderly, those frightened by illness, and the depressed of all ages would be potential victims. The authors discuss the cases that have received public attention as illustrative of these abuses.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1993

The suicide of Anne Sexton.

Anne Sexton, a distinguished poet, killed herself in 1974. Sexton's poems, many of which deal with suicide, read together with a richly researched recent biography--enhanced by the biographer's access to tapes of Sexton's sessions with her psychiatrist and by a foreword by that psychiatrist--permit an unusual opportunity to understand the interrelationship of her illness, her treatment, and the meaning of suicide in her life.

Famous Persons↗
PubMed1991

Suicide and guilt as manifestations of PTSD in Vietnam combat veterans.

OBJECTIVE: Although studies have suggested a disproportionate rate of suicide among war veterans, particularly those with postservice psychiatric illness, there has been little systematic examination of the underlying reasons. This study aimed to identify factors predictive of suicide among Vietnam combat veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). METHOD: Of 187 veterans referred to the study through a Veterans Administration hospital, 100 were confirmed by means of a structured questionnaire and five clinical interviews as having had combat experience in Vietnam and as meeting the DSM-III criteria for PTSD. The analysis is based on these 100 cases. RESULTS: Nineteen of the 100 veterans had made a postservice suicide attempt, and 15 more had been preoccupied with suicide since the war. Five factors were significantly related to suicide attempts: guilt about combat actions, survivor guilt, depression, anxiety, and severe PTSD. Logistic regression analysis showed that combat guilt was the most significant predictor of both suicide attempts and preoccupation with suicide. For a significant percentage of the suicidal veterans, such disturbing combat behavior as the killing of women and children took place while they were feeling emotionally out of control because of fear or rage. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, PTSD among Vietnam combat veterans emerged as a psychiatric disorder with considerable risk for suicide, and intensive combat-related guilt was found to be the most significant explanatory factor. These findings point to the need for greater clinical attention to the role of guilt in the evaluation and treatment of suicidal veterans with PTSD.

Combat Disorders↗
PubMed1991

Psychodynamics of suicide, with particular reference to the young.

OBJECTIVE AND METHOD: The article reviews the literature on the psychodynamics of suicide, focusing on factors that will help in evaluating and treating the young suicidal patient. Articles published in refereed journals and books and book chapters based on such articles are the source of most of the material. Articles that first brought a new finding to notice are given preference. Methodological limitations and contradictions with the data of other studies are pointed out. FINDINGS: The psychodynamic meaning of suicide for a patient derives from both affective and cognitive components. Rage, hopelessness, despair, and guilt are important affective states in which young patients commit suicide. The meanings of suicide can be usefully organized around the conscious (cognitive) and unconscious meanings given to death by the suicidal patient: death as reunion, death as rebirth, death as retaliatory abandonment, death as revenge, and death as self-punishment or atonement. CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge of the psychodynamics helps to distinguish which patients with any given diagnosis are at risk for suicide. Such knowledge is essential to the psychotherapeutic treatment of the young suicidal patient. Topics for future research include the role of anxiety in suicide; the capacity to bear hopelessness, rage, and other unpleasant affects without regression; the use of particular defense mechanisms in distinguishing the risk of either suicidal or violent behavior; and the relation of specific psychodynamic conflicts seen in suicidal patients to particular psychiatric diagnoses.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Youth suicide: a psychosocial perspective.

I draw on my studies in different cultures and subcultures and in different age groups to develop a psychosocial perspective for viewing youthful suicide. This perspective utilizes disciplines ranging from demography to psychodynamics to discuss the relationship of violence to suicide; the role of families in producing youngsters who become preoccupied with death and suicide; and the directions that seem most profitable for future research.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Suicide: a review of new directions in research.

Research on the relationship of diagnosis, genetics, violence, and psychological factors to suicide has changed dramatically during the past 20 years. Within this changing framework the author reviews current research, which focuses on understanding why some patients within one diagnostic category such as depression or schizophrenia commit suicide while others do not; separating genetic factors responsible for suicide from those responsible for depression; clarifying the biological correlates of suicide and aggression; and examining the psychosocial and demographic factors affecting suicide among the young and old, men and women, and various cultures and subcultures.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Combat adaptations of Vietnam veterans without posttraumatic stress disorders.

Ten veterans who did not develop posttraumatic stress after intense combat in Vietnam were studied to explain what had protected them. The authors found a highly consistent adaptation to combat: During combat each of these veterans had exhibited calmness under pressure, intellectual control, acceptance of fear, and a lack of excessively violent or guilt-arousing behavior. The authors believe that these traits may be part of an adaptation uniquely suitable for preserving emotional stability in an unstructured, unstable context.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1984

Combat never ends: the paranoid adaptation to posttraumatic stress.

Among Vietnam veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder, a frequently observed adaptation can be described as "paranoid". This adaptation, reflected in mistrust, proneness to take offense, and restricted affectivity, is integrally related to the meanings that combat experiences have had for these veterans. Both in combat and in their postwar civilian lives, rage and the readiness to counterattack serve to repress fear and vulnerability and to deny guilt. The case of one such veteran is presented to illuminate the relationship between combat and postcombat adaptations and to illustrate how understanding the meanings of combat for the veteran is necessary for successful psychotherapy with such patients.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1983

Suicide among older people: projections for the future.

Guided by recent demographic analyses of birth cohort effects, the authors demonstrate the relationship between cohort size and longitudinal suicide rates, with reference to four particular cohorts which have entered adulthood at various periods throughout the present century. Combining this perspective with a look at projected population increases among older age groups, estimates are made of the scope of the problem of suicide among older people which is likely to be encountered during the early decades of the next century.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Psychotherapy for Vietnam veterans with posttraumatic stress disorders.

Past psychotherapeutic approaches to posttraumatic stress disorders are discussed with reference to some of the special problems in treating the disorder in Vietnam combat veterans. In some cases therapy oriented specifically to the effects of combat trauma can be helpful even in veterans seen years after combat; in others the symptoms have become so enmeshed in the veteran's life that trauma-oriented therapy must be combined with more traditional psychotherapeutic principles. Three cases representing a range of the ways in which posttraumatic stress is experienced are presented and their treatment is discussed. These cases illustrate the importance for effective psychotherapy to be based on an understanding of what the combat experience has meant to the veteran and how such meanings continue to be represented in the individual's postwar life.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Meanings of combat and the development of posttraumatic stress disorder.

The authors use the concept of "meanings of combat" to explain combat veterans' different reactions to war experiences, particularly the development of a posttraumatic stress disorder after combat. The authors present four case reports to illustrate some of the different meanings of combat and the ways such meanings relate to stress disorder and soldiers' adaptation before, during, and after combat.

Adaptation, Psychological↗