Markers of suicide risk: a review of research, analysis of the Szondi test, and new hypotheses

Abstract

This problematic article raises the issue of using projective techniques, and, in particular, the Sondi test to study the phenomenon of «suicide». As a result of a comparative analysis of previously conducted studies of suicidal behavior using the Sondi test, this author comes to the conclusion that prognostic information about the possible risk of a suicidal act is provided by the vectors Sch and C. Based on the material of his own research, the significance of dissociation between the bodily dimension of the Ego and its mental dimension (psychosomatic split of the Ego) as a criterion of suicidal risk is shown. The intrapsychic split of the Self in suicides differs from the psychotic split in that it has a special «topography» – a section of the Ego located in the conscious and preconscious. It is shown that between groups of suicides with and without psychopathological status, there is a similarity of the results of the Sondi test, which indicate a special psychosomatic conformation of the Ego and are diagnostically significant.