[Approach to the study of suicide in the essays of Enrico Morselli (1879) and in the successive hypotheses of Durkheim and Freud].

Scientific investigations on suicide began at the beginning of the XIX century. The aim of such investigations was the evaluation of the epidemiological and statistical distribution of the phenomenon in order to set up preventive intervention, as well as the establishment of the psychological and psychopathological characteristics of the subjects choosing this solution to their life. E. Morselli's work on the matter (1879) can be considered the main Italian contribution to the discussion that was troubling and antagonizing the most competent authors in all the civil world from the half a century and it was regarded in due consideration by his contemporaries too. The second author taken into consideration is E. Durkheim, whose monograph issued twenty years later presents elements having such originality and accuracy that they represent even today a constant reference for the suicide studies. S. Freud, on his side, did never write any monograph on this matter, but fundamental observations on the self-suppression psychodynamic interpretation can be found in his works.