Thwarting Disorientation and Suicide: An Examination of Naroll's Theory of Suicide

The thwarting disorientation theory of suicide proposed by Raoul Naroll is described and, although similar to Durkheim's classic theory of suicide, is seen to be more dynamic and applicable to individual cases of suicide. Empirical tests of Naroll's theory, con ducted by him and by others, are reviewed and found to be supportive of the theory. Naroll's provocative notion that suicide may be used as an index of the quality of a culture is described and found to be consistent with the views of modern commentators concerned about the rising suicide rate in modern industrialized societies.