Word use in the poetry of suicidal and nonsuicidal poets

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether distinctive f eatures of language could be discerned in the poems of poets who committed suicide and to test two suicide models by use of a text-analysis program. M ethod: Approximately 300 poems from the early, middle, and late periods of nine suicidal poets and nine nonsuicidal poets were compared by use of the computer text analysis program, Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC). L anguage use within the poems was analyzed within the context of two suicide models. Results: In line with a model of social integration, writings of s uicidal poets contained more words pertaining to the individual self and fe wer words pertaining to the collective than did those of nonsuicidal poets. In addition, the direction of effects for words pertaining to communicatio n was consistent with the social integration model of suicide. Conclusions: The study found support for a model that suggests that suicidal individual s are detached from others and are preoccupied with self. Furthermore, the findings suggest that linguistic predictors of suicide can be discerned thr ough text analysis.