Abstract

ROCHA, Priscila Gomes  and  LIMA, Deyseane Maria Araújo. Suicide: peculiarities of surviving families' grief and the psychologist's intervention. Psicol. clin. [online]. 2019, vol.31, n.2, pp. 323-344. ISSN 0103-5665.  http://dx.doi.org/10.33208/PC1980-5438V0031N02A06.

The consequences of someone's death by suicide spread through many different domains, as it impacts family members and people close to the suicide victim, in both individual and social contexts. However, this paper highlights the mourning process of family suicide survivors. Suicide is a sudden and violent death, which therefore causes great suffering and demands from the survivors a great deal of psychic energy in order to undergo mourning. The present article, through an integrative review, highlighted the particular characteristics of the mourning process of these families. It was observed that they went through feelings particular to this form of grief, namely shame and guilt, as well as feelings that are common to other types of death, such as sorrow and longing. Some postvention strategies were focused on as strategies that can be applied by psychologists and other mental health professionals with the aim of supporting survivors and reducing their risk of attempting suicide in the future. Finally, an emphasis is placed on the importance of professional support for survivors during the mourning period and on the need for further research and investment on postvention in order to qualify professionals and shelter the sorrow of families in mourning after a suicide.

Keywords : suicide; grief; family; psychologist intervention; support.

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