Is perceived burdensomeness present in the lives of famous suicides? A lack of support for the interpersonal theory of suicide

Abstract

The Interpersonal Theory of Suicide (IPTS) proposes that suicide is the result of three constructs: perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belonging, and the acquired capability for suicide. To explore the presence of these constructs in suicides, two raters read 72 summaries of biographies of famous suicide for the extent to which each construct was present. Only 11 of the 72 (15.3%) suicides were judged to have perceived burdensomeness compared to 65 (90.3%) and 48 (66.7%) for thwarted belonging and the acquired capability, respectively, indicating that a sense of burdensomeness is not commonly found in suicides.

Notes

1 The essays were originally written by Lester prior to 2004 and placed in an unpublished journal (Proceedings of the Pavese Society) which was sent to 25 colleagues in the field of suicidology. Later, the essays were re-typed and uploaded to www.drdavidlester.net with different dates. For example, the essay on Sylvia Plath was written in 1992 and published in 1993 in Proceedings of the Pavese Society but uploaded to the website in 2011.