Children's disturbed reactions to parent suicide.

Abstract

The frequent involvement of suicide's children in the emotional context leading to and surrounding their parent's suicide, and the profound psychological impact of parent suicide upon a child is reported in this clinical study. The role of guilt and distortions of communication consequent to the suicide are found among the particularly crucial dimensions of the pathogenic effects of parent suicide.

Minds and Dialogues in Analytic Spaces—Negotiating Certainty and Uncertainty Reply to Commentary

“…At the individual and intrapsychic level, certainty can always serve the defense of omnipotence whether or not that certainty is justified. Cain and Fast (1972) described a clinical case in which a child's perception of grave tragedy was denied by an authoritarian parent to the great cost of the child's thinking and sensing apparatus as well as emotional well-being. The relative relief and dangers of knowing and not knowing are complex, and this is so for analyst, supervisor, and our patients.…”

New approaches to understanding unconscious processes: Implicit and explicit memory systems

“…Moreover, event episodes or scripts are based in explicit memory systems, are potentially accessible to consciousness, and are not limited to the here and now. 206 M. Cortina and G. Liotti experienced (an event memory) and a general semantic false memory instilled by the surviving parent (Cain & Fast, 1972).…”

Aging and Suicide: The Significance of Marital, Kinship, and Alternative Relations

“…While kin networks may have positive effects for most old people, the support of relatives, friends, and neighbors may be lacking if widowhood is the result of spousal suicide. In the latter case, as Cain and Fast (1966) demonstrate, the widowed may very well experience such negative reactions as avoidance, gossip, and accusations.…”