Suicide notes and motives for suicide in psychological reports compiled for the judiciary

Abstract

To establish the motives for the act is one of the main goals of the psychological evaluation required by judicial process in cases of suicide. In many cases, this makes it possible to prove or falsify the hypothesis that a person’s death is the result of the actions of one or more other people who –in one way or another –have contributed to that person’s decision to take their own life. Sometimes, people who die by suicide leave farewell notes indicating the person or people directly responsible for their deaths. Although notes of this kind offer an important source of information about the emotional states of their authors and their relationships with their social environments, they remain subjective. Indeed, it is often the case that thorough reviews of all of the material in the cases concerned do not support the thesis that a third party directly influenced the deceased’s decision to end their own life. Moreover, in some instances, people who die by suicide have been found to have misled the people in their immediate environment. Nevertheless, where verified suicide notes exist, they remain a valuable source of information for psychologists. The article analyses ninety-three cases in which psychological reports were compiled to determine the motives for fatal suicide attempts. Suicide notes were found in thirty of these cases. The form and content of these notes are examined, and the options for their use in forensic reports are considered.