PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - P Berry
TI  - Guesswork and guilt—the mind of a suicide
AID  - 10.1136/jmh.2003.000165
DP  - 2004 Dec 01
TA  - Medical Humanities
PG  - 82--84
VI  - 30
IP  - 2
4099  - http://mh.bmj.com/content/30/2/82.short
4100  - http://mh.bmj.com/content/30/2/82.full
SO  - J Med Humanit2004 Dec 01; 30
AB  - This is an imagined dialogue between the ghost of a young suicide and an old schoolfriend. The living discussant, a doctor now, regrets that he did not realise how deeply troubled his friend was, and wants to know if and in what way he could have dissuaded the depressed schoolboy from his irrevocable decision. The ghost, however, confident in death, free from mental anguish, challenges the doctor’s presumptions. What right does he, does society have, to stop, detain, dissuade, and “cure” those who wish to kill themselves? The issues of sanity, free will, and societal judgment are explored in an encounter that can never take place, but which sheds light on the thought processes of the suicidal.