Psychological pain and the occurrence of suicidal thoughts and tendencies

Different ways of understanding the psychological pain, its causes and ways to measure this variable were described in the presented article. Special attention was paid to Edwin Shneidman's concept, in which the psychological pain along with cognitive constriction in which death is seen as the only source of interruption of suffering, is the basic source of suicidal thoughts and behaviours. According to Shneidman's concept, the source of pain lies in the frustration over important needs and without satisfying them man is not able to function. The most popular tools for the study of psychological pain were listed. The studies which show the relation between the psychological pain and suicidal tendencies and personality variables were overviewed. Most of them indicate that psychological pain has stronger relations with the occurrence of suicidal thoughts and attempts than the feeling of hopelessness and levels of depression. It was also shown that the most important factors contributing to suicidal attempts (namely feelings of hopelessness, depression and psychological pain) are highly correlated, but at the same time they retain their autonomy. In some studies, it was also found out that psychological pain plays a causal role in suicidal tendencies and that the change in suicidal thoughts is determined by changes in the level of psychological pain. The article also includes demands for further research on the psychological pain. It was pointed out that the research on psychological pain covered the period of the last decade, so it is something new. It is advisable to conduct research on psychological pain relations with other (than suicidal tendencies) self-destructive behaviours, such as, for example, psychoactive substance abuse and the factors that protect against suffering from it. It is also worth to explore the relationship between the experience of physical and psychological pain and suicidal tendencies.