Working with the risk suicide in young people

Abstract

This paper provides a psychoanalytic framework for working with adolescents at risk of suicide, which, it is argued, is essential for understanding the wide range of presentations of suicidality in adolescence, and for making sense of the powerful emotional impact of this work on the worker. The paper locates the discussion in the context of current knowledge of patterns of suicidality, and focuses on discussing internal dynamics and the adolescents’ relationships with the body. It concludes that a containing reflective space is the most effective way of reducing suicide risk in each individual case.