About this event

Eight ‘Truths’ About Suicide: Revisited - Dr Rachel Gibbons and Prof David Mosse

Suicide is often seen as accidental, impulsive, or the sole consequence of mental illness. In this seminar, Dr Rachel Gibbons challenges these assumptions, offering “truths” that have emerged from 16 years of listening to clinicians, families, and those bereaved by suicide. Drawing on personal experience and rich clinical data, she reframes suicide as an acting-out of unbearable psychic pain, rooted in disrupted mourning, internal splitting, and suicidal fantasy. The session invites clinicians to reflect on what it means to face suicide with openness rather than fear, and why risk prediction models can obscure the very understanding we need to help.

Aims:

• Reframe suicide as a psychologically meaningful act, not just a clinical failure.
• Recognise the psychic and social mechanisms that give rise to blame, guilt, and unbearable “unknowing.”
• Replace fear-driven practice with therapeutic engagement, curiosity, and shared reflection.

Dr Rachel Gibbons is Vice Chair of the Psychotherapy Faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists and a leading voice on the emotional impact of suicide and homicide in clinical practice. She chaired the RCPsych Working Group on the Effect of Suicide and Homicide for six years and previously led the College’s Patient Safety Group. A psychoanalyst, group analyst, and consultant psychiatrist, she has worked in the NHS for over 20 years, developed national guidance on staff support, and received the RCPsych President’s Medal in 2024.

This lecture will be recorded and available for 7 days after the lecture takes place.

© Image: Matthew Kolakowski, 'Storm Inside' 2010

REFUND POLICY: Tickets are fully refundable until 14 days before the lecture, after which time no refunds will be issued.

Concession tickets are available, for students, BPAS candidates and NHS trainees and nurses. Please email [email protected] if you are unsure if you qualify for a concession ticket.

Views and opinions expressed by speakers are their own and do not represent the views or opinions of the Institute, event organisers or other speakers. We expect delegates to respect the confidentiality of clinical material discussed in our events. The content must not be recorded, conveyed or disseminated in any format and participants must not share access to the event with non-registered participants.

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