The analysis of farewell letters of suicidal persons

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present some possibility of analysis of the letters written by persons committing suicide. A methodology of this type of analysis could be necessary for criminal investigations and forensic document expertise. The authors of those letters express their private and specific perception of the world, of people and themselves. These documents are very rich and plenty of intimate images. First of all the symptoms of presuicidal syndrome could be expressed in these letters. The author of this manuscript describes the suicidal syndrome characteristics that could possibly be observed in the farewell letters; then she attempts to present some proposals of analysis based on narrative theories and psycholinguistic research. According to these conceptions, an analysis of form and content could be conducted. Narrative psychology gives us the techniques of text study, such as lexical analysis, syntax analysis or cohesion analysis; these techniques could be useful in the field of investigation of farewell letters.