Abstract

VANNUCCHI, Ana Maria Stucchi. Suicide in adolescence: trying to think the unthinkable. Rev. bras. psicanál [online]. 2019, vol.53, n.4, pp. 143-157. ISSN 0486-641X.

In this work the author revisits several theoretical approaches on adolescence and on suicide in this stage of life, emphasizing the difference between the wish to kill oneself to escape this life in search of another one, or to try to eliminate an inner persecutor, and the wish to die per se. The clinical situations presented shed light on different mental configurations and functioning that exemplify important aspects such as omnipotence, denial of the inner violence, desire to unite with the idealized object, and clearly psychotic experiences, frequent in this stage of life, in which the termination drive releases destructiveness making the personality vulnerable to the elements originated from the pulsatory explosion and from the sociocultural environment. The work also brings contributions from Literature, which help amplify our possibilities to understand the complexity of the human condition.

Keywords : death drive; omnipotence; narcissism; idealized object; denial; inner violence.

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