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Suicide and type

swordpath

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Is there a type that is more inclined to be suicidal/commit suicide?

What about just depressed? Just a question out of curiosity.
 

cascadeco

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Is there a type that is more inclined to be suicidal/commit suicide?

What about just depressed? Just a question out of curiosity.

Well first of all, each of the types could get depressed/suicidal, but for different reasons, or different triggers that are more type specific. For example, certain situations could trigger depression for an ESTJ that wouldn't trigger depression for an INFP, and vice versa.

I don't really know anything about the subject or have any data, but I'd imagine any of the Introverts would be more inclined towards depression, and perhaps more specifically the INxx's. But maybe that's not true.
I don't know if the same would hold for suicide, or whether suicide would be pretty evenly distributed across all of the types.
 

Totenkindly

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If I were to speculate on all this, I'd first sit down and make a big list of the characteristics of depression itself.

Then I'd just go through each type and decide how often and under what conditions each type might exude those qualities.

Any type can get depressed, it's more a matter of why and how often.
 

The Ü™

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I'm inclined to agree with Jennifer.

In broad stereotypical fashion, I'd say that:
  • Suicidal SPs
    • Inadvertently getting themselves killed by performing a reckless stunt.
    • Needing to inflict pain on themselves in order to "feel alive" one last time.
    • They have run out of things to enjoy in life.
  • Suicidal SJs
    • An inability to adapt to the changing circumstances of the world around them.
    • A lack of belonging to any group.
    • The subculture they belong to considers suicide to be cool and hip. (Like becoming a member of a Jim Jones cult or something.)
  • Suicidal NFs
    • A lack of identity and self-worth.
    • Nihilistic philosophical beliefs.
    • Self-sacrifice for something they believe in.
  • Suicidal NTs
    • Fear of being incompetent in life.
    • Since they are naturally both imaginative and skeptical, they may become paranoid, which often leads to suicide.
    • They may express a radical or inhuman new vision that would get them assassinated by an SJ or NF.
Furthermore, I would suspect that the Introverts of each temperament will more likely be suicidal, while the Extraverts of each temperament will more likely be homicidal.
 

deep rain

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INxx types are naturally and deeply introspective, which makes them reflect and over-examine their inner world which makes them prone to depression.


A guy on another MBTI forum summed this up quite well:

Either INTP or INFJ. INTJ and INFP, I think, are more relieved by thinking about it - they have introverted emotions. INTP/INFJ.. their emotions are more contingent on extraverted states of affairs; and to the extent states of affairs are less then ideal, this creates an impression of no escape. With INFP/INTJ, suicide is a matter of escaping an internal conflict, and not an external conflict. When the conflict is centered internally, it is easier to keep steady. INFP/INTJ have a consistent, constant nagging depression; a particularly neurotic dysthymia. When INTP/INFJs are fucked up, they are riding a train which is out of control, and are subject to the whims of their environment.. this exists to the extent they are invested in an ideal external state of affairs which is unattainable and unrealistic; you could call it a psychotic fantasy.


INFs are the most feeling-oriented of all the types, emotions being the core of their internal world - the most sensitive and emotional of all the types. In general, I'd say INFPs are the most likely to have thoughts of suicide, while INFJs are more likely to attempt it.
 

scantilyclad

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yeah i think any type could contemplate or attempt suicide, but it's all about what is going to cause different people to do it.

I know i always get sort of suicidal, but i would never actually do it. I just sit around and think about it for hours, how it would be done, etc.

I have an ISFP friend who actually attempted it, so it could really happen to anyone imo.
 

Billy

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INFJ's lol well strictly speaking from the "existential crisis" they usually live.
 

Arclight

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I read in a book on MBTI dark sides(Games personality types play). that NF's are the most common type to commit suicide.

I also read on ennagramm, that type 4's, especially those with a 5 wing are the most likely to commit suicide.

This is not surprising.
 

Xenon

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I think I remember someone on this board citing research saying it was IxxPs...

I also recall the 'neuroticism' trait in the big 5 test is correlated with 'I' and 'P' preferences in MBTI, and to a lesser extent with 'F'.

Of course any type can become depressed or suicidal, and type is probably a pretty minor factor compared to some others.
 

Stanton Moore

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Suicide Ideation and Personality Characteristics Among Gifted Adolescents — Gifted Child Quarterly

Abstract
This study describes psychological characteristics of gifted adolescents. It also identifies the relationships between psychological personality types and suicide ideation. Participants in the study were 152 juniors enrolled in a public residential high school for academically gifted students. The Suicide Ideation Questionnaire, a 30-item self-report measure, was used to assess adolescent levels of suicide ideation. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI; Myers, 1962), a widely used measure of psychological type that contrasts four dimensions of personality—extra-version (E)/introversion (I), sensing (S)/intuition (N), thinking (T)/feeling (F), and judging (J)/perceiving (P)—was used to determine personality types of the students.

The results indicated that gifted adolescents did not exhibit heightened rates of suicide ideation as compared to their nongifted peers. However, female students held higher levels of suicide ideation than male students. Female students exhibiting introversion-perceiving (IP) types held higher levels of suicide ideation than those with other types. There was a significant between-groups effect for the judging-perceiving analysis. Students identified as perceiving personality types held higher levels of suicide ideation than those with the judging personality type. Gender, judging/perceiving, and extraversion/introversion combined to reliably predict approximately 18% of the variance in suicide ideation in this sample.
 

Halla74

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^Bad ass research article, very interesting, thanks for posting that.
 

Tiltyred

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I read in a book on MBTI dark sides(Games personality types play). that NF's are the most common type to commit suicide.

I also read on ennagramm, that type 4's, especially those with a 5 wing are the most likely to commit suicide.

This is not surprising.

Yes, it seems better predicted by enneagram than MBTI.
 

ReadingRainbows

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I read in a book on MBTI dark sides(Games personality types play). that NF's are the most common type to commit suicide.

I also read on ennagramm, that type 4's, especially those with a 5 wing are the most likely to commit suicide.

This is not surprising.

No. No it's not.
 

Snuggletron

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I thought about it pretty deeply a few times

no legitimate reason, just being an angsty pizza-faced teen

deeply enough to be sent to a psychologist though

who ended up wanting to test me for ADD instead
 

mwv6r

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I read a book on personality disorders that suggested that bipolar personality disorder is the most likely personality disorder to inflict self-harm / attempt suicide. Every personality disorder in the book seemed to map onto (negative forms of) particular MBTI types (e.g., those with narcissistic personality disorder sounded like unhealthy ESTJs, those with histrionic personality disorder sounded like unhealthy ESFJs, and those with avoidant personality disorder sounded like unhealthy INFJs, etc.) Bipolar personality disorder maps onto unhealthy INFPs. However, I don't know whether that means that unhealthy INFPs would be the most likely to commit suicide or rather the most likely to contemplate/attempt suicide.... Anyway, just a thought....
 

ajblaise

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Male INFPs I think. Or ESTPs doing it on impulse.

Suicide Ideation and Personality Characteristics Among Gifted Adolescents — Gifted Child Quarterly

Abstract
This study describes psychological characteristics of gifted adolescents. It also identifies the relationships between psychological personality types and suicide ideation. Participants in the study were 152 juniors enrolled in a public residential high school for academically gifted students. The Suicide Ideation Questionnaire, a 30-item self-report measure, was used to assess adolescent levels of suicide ideation. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI; Myers, 1962), a widely used measure of psychological type that contrasts four dimensions of personality—extra-version (E)/introversion (I), sensing (S)/intuition (N), thinking (T)/feeling (F), and judging (J)/perceiving (P)—was used to determine personality types of the students.

The results indicated that gifted adolescents did not exhibit heightened rates of suicide ideation as compared to their nongifted peers. However, female students held higher levels of suicide ideation than male students. Female students exhibiting introversion-perceiving (IP) types held higher levels of suicide ideation than those with other types. There was a significant between-groups effect for the judging-perceiving analysis. Students identified as perceiving personality types held higher levels of suicide ideation than those with the judging personality type. Gender, judging/perceiving, and extraversion/introversion combined to reliably predict approximately 18% of the variance in suicide ideation in this sample.

Interesting. I know females also get depressed more than males, but with actual suicide, males do it at a much higher rate.
 

Magic Poriferan

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Suicidal Thoughts?

I guess you could try searching the poll for a pattern, though realistically you'd have to account for the distribution of type that already exists on this forum while assessing those results. I honestly don't know if it would be of any use.

*shrug*
 

Quinlan

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Whichever type reads the most "which type is the most ____" threads.
 

Siúil a Rúin

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Male INFPs I think. Or ESTPs doing it on impulse.
^I can see what you are saying here. There are different ways of expressing suicidal feelings, and the ultra-risk-taker is one type, rather than just the withdrawn dark brooding type. I also think the type that feels pressure to put up a perfect external front could deal with issues of inner despair.

It's just a personal theory, but I think the way in which problem-solving is introduced in developing children can affect a sense of despair in reaction to problems later in life. I've known naturally analytical types who were abused and presented with unsolvable problems early in life that can get really stuck and even suicidal when an emotional situation seems impossible to solve. They slip into that sense of complete hopelessness and powerlessness just like a child faced with overwhelming odds from an abuser.
 
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