The Anatomy of Suicide applies the interactional view of human behavior to the problem of suicide. The interactional view holds that the behavior of person A controls the behavior of person B, and vice versa. When a person threatens to kill himself or herself, this threat is intended to force another person in a relationship to change. When a person commits suicide, it signifies that the attempt to force the other person to change has failed.

When a threat is carried out, it is because he or she believes that the prospect of change on the part of the other is zero. Suicide is the symbolic punishment of one person by another. Shame and guilt are the force-fields in this punitive process. After a suicidal death, at least one survivor will be blamed for it and made to live with its consequences. Into this volatile situation that is fueled by the most primitive and negative of human emotions, comes the therapist - determined to save a life.

This kind of pathology is not the same as the kind a therapist normally encounters, and special interventions will be needed to prevent the suicidal act. This book spells out those methods, step by step and in full detail. By means of these strategies, the therapist can stitch together a relationship that has come apart at the seams and which, if not repaired, may have deadly consequences. Because suicide is an interpersonal event, there is good reason to believe that social sanctions will evolve to eradicate it largely from the human condition.

Preventing suicide will eventually become an intrinsic achievement of social control.