Depersonalization and Self-Destruction
HERBERT WALTZER M.D.1
1 Assistant director, department of psychiatry, Queens Hospital Center-Hillside Hospital Affiliation, 82-68 164th St., Jamaica, N. Y. 11432, and clinical assistant professor, department of psychiatry, State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, N. Y.
Depersonalization in conjunction with self-destructive behavior is more common than generally realized. Suicide attempts are often carried out while the individual is in a depersonalized state. As a result of ego-splitting there is partial withdrawal from both the external and intrapsychic worlds. The individual views the self-destructive act as though it was being carried out by another person.
