The Aeschi Working Group

MEETING THE SUICIDAL PERSON

The therapeutic approach to the suicidal patient

Reflections on Aeschi II: A Faculty Perspective

The second meeting at Aeschi far exceeded my expectations. It was so valuable to me to see the interest of attendees in narrative and empathic approaches to understanding suicide. I was particularly impressed by the many stories that participants told of struggling to find better ways of working with their suicidal patients. These discussions were thoughtful, frank, and very enlightening to me; I learned so much from the experiences of those who came to the meeting. There seems to be a genuine thirst to do better by our suicidal patients—to go beyond risk variables, statistics, and diagnoses to reach a better understanding of how and why people teeter at the brink of death, driven there by unbearable psychological pain.

I loved that the conference was relatively small and intimate giving us a real chance to meet and exchange views. As an American, I think we all too often do not take in a larger worldview and consider issues of culture, history, and national identity. When we first met two years ago, I never imagined that the “Aeschi Spirit” that was kindled at that meeting would so clearly ripple to and resonate with other like-minded clinicians and researchers.

It makes me think that we must continue this work and make these perspectives and ideas known, certainly at the level of clinical assessment but also extending the views we discussed into clinical treatments of suicidal states as well. I very much hope the perspectives we discussed continue to grow and prosper so that we may better understand and ultimately help save the lives we can and must try to save in our work.

On to Aeschi III!

David A. Jobes, Ph.D., ABPP
Department of Psychology
The Catholic University of America
USA

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