"What Can We Learn From First-Person Narratives?" The Case of Nonfatal Suicidal Behavior

Bibliographic Data

ID4635256
AuthorsJason Bantjes (0000-0002-3626-9883, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa, corresponding author), L Swartz (0000-0003-1741-5897, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa)
Year2019
Volume29
Issue10
Pages1497-1507
Publication date2019-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueQualitative Health Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1049-7323 • E-ISSN: 1552-7557
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1049732319832869
PMID30827183
OpenAlexW2918836003
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited69

Responding to the limitations of dominant biomedical quantitative approaches to suicide research, scholars have called for qualitative research documenting first-person narratives of suicide to gain access to the "true experts." This raises questions about what we can learn about suicide from first-person narratives. In this article, we critically examine the practice of analyzing first-person narratives of nonfatal suicidal behavior to make truth claims about the causes of suicide. We make explicit the assumptions that underlie the interpretation of first-person narratives and draw on research within cognitive neuropsychology and social psychology to explore how memory processes, perception, and attribution errors might influence the way individuals narrate their experience. We employ literature from narrative theory and life-writing to argue that narratives about nonfatal suicidal behavior are at best partial accounts which are constructed within very particular circumstances, making it impossible to interpret them as revealing the true causes of suicide

Art · Medical emergency · Narrative · Poison control · Suicidal behavior · Suicide prevention · Medicine · Personality Disorders and Psychopathology · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology · Suicide and Self-Harm Studies