MICROSUICIDE AND SUICIDAL THREATS OF EVERYDAY LIFE

Microsuicide encompasses behaviors, communications, attitudes, or life-styles that are self-induced and threatening or inimical to an individual s physical health, emotional well-being, or personal goals. Examples of microsuicidal behavior include progressive self-denial, inwardness, withholding, destructive dependency bonds, and physically harmful life-styles. These behaviors and related negative thought processes that mediate self-destructive behavior are analyzed in terms of their function as a defense first against separation anxiety and later against death anxiety. Rather than considering suicide, suicidal ideation, and more serious forms of microsuicidal behavior as subclasses of mental illness, the authors conceptualize mental illness as a form of suicide.