The suicide triad and the oral triad: contributions of Menninger and Lewin in the understanding of suicide in psychoanalysis

Abstract

One of the most important contributions regarding the topic of suicide from psychoanalysis is Karl Menninger's theory of the suicidal triad. In this, Menninger proposes the existence of three unconscious desires which are involved in all suicidal actions. Years later, Bertram Lewin reviewed this theory and, together with Freud's contributions regarding suicide, proposed that the desire to kill, the desire to be killed and the desire to die have a more primitive oral basis. Based on his proposal, Lewin, far from disproving Menninger's proposal, improves the understanding of it, developing a theory that is crucial in the understanding of the suicidal problem in contemporary psychoanalytic clinic.