Suicide notes at symbolic ages.

Symbolic ages, like 40, 65, or 70, are often stocktaking occasions. Phillips and Smith in 1991 showed that suicides peak at such ages for married males and suggested that suicide notes may be an avenue to analyzing such stocktaking in people's lives. 40 notes from symbolic and nonsymbolic ages were compared based on a multidimensional clinical perspective. No differences were noted. Although caution is in order in accepting the null hypothesis, it is speculated that macrosocial phenomena may not be easily translatable into psychological ones.