Zilboorg-Friedman Archives, 1936-1941

These data were collected for several years, beginning in 1939, by members of the Committee for the Study of Suicide at the request of Mayor LaGuardia of New York. The committee undertook a comprehensive study of suicide as a social and psychological phenomenon after an unusually high number of New York City policemen committed suicide between 1934 and 1940.
<br /><br /> The data consist of case studies of attempted and completed suicides. The data were collected in hospitals by physicians, psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers in New York City, Denver, Boston, and Chicago. These case studies include either short summaries, brief case reports (50-100 pages), or extended case reports (200 pages), along with psychoanalytic reports including therapy notes, dreams, and other information. Included in these materials is correspondence among several of the central figures in the project relating to the psychoanalytic view of suicide in the 1930s.
<br /> <br /> The Murray Research Archive has acquired 93 full cases of New York policemen, and hundreds of complete or partial cases on female and male attempted or completed suicides. Since the cases contain highly confidential information, special permission to use the data must be obtained. <br /><br /> The Murray Archive holds paper materials for this study. If you would like to access this material, please apply to use the data.