> But as Zizek once said, psychoanalysis can prevent suicide. "I can't
> kill myself - I have my analyst's appointment on Monday at 3, and I
> can't miss that!"
Many things can prevent suicide -- and what most of them have in common is a feeling that there is some other person (or persons) who one must not harm. I've never been actively suicidal -- but I remember making mental lists of the people who would be harmed by my death, and calculating under what conditions that list might be shortened.
What research I am aware of that compares different kinds of psychotherapy (and there is a lot) seems only to establish that having someone nominally professional to talk to is apt to help.
Also. A rather huge amount of research has established pretty definitely that despite the risks of lithium, it is *most* unadvisable for bipolar patients to stop taking lithium during preganancy. The suicide rates go up too sharply when lithium treatment is dropped. Lithium is from every aspect but one a really horrible drug -- that one aspect being that it keeps people alive.
Carrol