On Suicide: With Particular Reference to Suicide Among Young Students is a 1967 English translation and editing by the psychoanalyst and suicidologist Paul Friedman of the original "Über den Selbstmord insbesondere den Schüler-Selbstmord" by the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. The original piece was published in 1910 in German and includes psychoanalytic discussions from eight members of the society about the causes and explanations for the suicide of students.
The eight members are Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Josef Karl Friedjung, Carl Furtmüller (pseudonym: Karl Monitor), David Ernst Oppenheim, Rudolf Reitler, J. Isidor Sadger and Wilhelm Stekel. The translation by Friedman was a project of the Library Committee of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute to give non-German speakers access to the historical document.
Content
Timeframe
In the foreword written by Paul Friedman, the author stresses the historical significance of the document as it was one of the last meetings of the society. Giving an illustration of the Zeitgeist of 1910 he describes an "epidemic" of suicides among young students, partly due to the book The Sorrows of Young Werther written by Goethe. Furthermore, the author displays the time before 1900 as a deterministic philosophy where human behavior was attributed to outer abiding causes and was rationalized.
According to Friedman, in the realm of psychiatry suicide was associated with mental disorders, caused by predisposing factors such as heredity. The etiology of suicide presented by the symposium on suicide is therefore seen as revolutionary in the author's eyes. Especially, topics such as psychosexual crisis, heterosexual and homosexual conflict, as well as an association between murder and suicide, went against the strong resistance of psychological thinking in the beginning of the 20th century.
The preface was written by Alfred Adler on behalf of the society and gives further information about the members of the circle. He describes that the Vienna psychoanalytic Society met every week for seven years and is composed of physicians and psychologists, all applying the psychoanalytic method first used by Breuer.
Symposium on Suicide
David Ernst Oppenheim
Oppenheim was an Austrian gymnasium teacher and a psychologist who starts the discussion by arguing that in the cause and prevention of suicide among young students, the least blame should be put on teachers. The educationalist argues that teachers have to observe too many children with not enough time and primarily focus on the intellectual abilities of the child. Despite having the time and resources for observation, the family of affected adolescents often do not notice or report the psychological conflicts of their child. Referring to an investigation of 320 suicide cases by Eulenburg, the psychoanalyst states that one-fourth of suicides among students can be attributed to a lack of ability in school.
He argues that blinded by their ambition, parents often force children to attend school although students experience failures due to a lack of understanding. In his opinion, mentally and physically “unfit” students should be dismissed from school. Oppenheim further notices that opportunities for self-destruction such as weapons or robes produce “suggestive excitation” in young people, luring them into an imitation of the suicidal act. In his opinion, children are more likely to imitate their environment and this effect is even further amplified by the details of suicides reported in the news.
Sigmund Freud
The neurologist does not share Oppenheim's opinion on the responsibility of schools. He is of the opinion that teachers should be supporting students as surrogates of their families and fail to arouse their interest in life. Freud later ends the discussion by claiming that there is still not enough psychoanalytic understanding about the emotional processes and changes of the libido as causes of suicide.