The semantic perception of life, death and suicide.

Gathered semantic distance scores between pairs of concepts (life and death, life and suicide, and death and suicide) from suicidal, psychosomatic, and hospitalized patients (N = 45). It was hypothesized that suicidal individuals would show greater semantic identity between these concepts than would the other patients. It was thought that such semantic identity on the part of the other patients. It was thought that such semantic identity on the part of the suicidal individuals would reflect their inability to discriminate between these concepts. However, it was found that the suicidal individuals differentiated between life and death to a significantly greater degree than did the comparison groups. It may be that suicidal decisions are based more on being confronted by definite clear alternative states of existence than by confusion between them.