How Herman Langner's "Attachment and Suicide" Relates to Recent Tragedy

When I read in March about a murder-suicide, I was unaware that the tragedy took place just a few blocks from the home of my sister and brother-in-law, Herman Langner, MD, who practices psychiatry there.

Last night we talked about how it related to my brother-in-law's book Attachment and Suicide.

He was interviewed on this subject a few years ago after the Northern Illinois University shooting, also murder-suicide.

https://prev.dailyherald.com/story/?id=367056

Last night we talked about how this recent tragic incident relates to his findings after doing extensive research and writing a book on the subject.  

He studied 180 consecutive cases ruled as suicide by the DuPage County Coroners office.

 He says that the most observable disturbance in this population had to do with their relationships.   

"One group of victims showed a distinctive pattern of disturbance," he said.  "In their case an attachment object was of all-consuming importance and the sole preoccupation of the last moments of their lives.  

"In some cases they specifically asked, 'Who do you love more--me or you?'  

'When the significant other answered 'me,' they shot themselves directly in front of her."  (It was usually a female.)  

"In some cases they killed the love object before killing themselves.

"What they needed from the maternal object as expressed in their suicide notes was unconditional availability, acceptance, understanding, and appreciation.  Their lives were literally contingent on the fulfillment o these needs.  Failure to meet them provoked feelings of hopelessness, despair, and rage and was directly responsible for the decision to commit suicide."  

After killing his daughter and before shooting his wife in the legs, the man down the street told his wife, “I want you to live and suffer like I did.”

http://tinamartinsanfranciscovistas.blogspot.com/2017/05/how-herman-langners-attachment-and.html

To be continued...