The DOI matches its Crossref record; 22 of the 22 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Word Use in the Poetry of Suicidal and Nonsuicidal Poets
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine whether distinctive features 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. METHOD: 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). Language use within the poems was analyzed within the context of two suicide models. RESULTS: In line with a model of social integration, writings of suicidal poets contained more words pertaining to the individual self and fewer words pertaining to the collective than did those of nonsuicidal poets. In addition, the direction of effects for words pertaining to communication was consistent with the social integration model of suicide. CONCLUSIONS: The study found support for a model that suggests that suicidal individuals are detached from others and are preoccupied with self. Furthermore, the findings suggest that linguistic predictors of suicide can be discerned through text analysis.
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Suicidal poets used fewer first-person plural pronouns than nonsuicidal poets.
“Stirman and Pennebaker [19] found that suicidal poets used fewer first-person plural pronouns than nonsuicidal poets.”
From Behavioral Activation and Depression Symptomatology: Longitudinal Assessment of Linguistic Indicators in Text-Based Therapy Sessions (2021) · cites this paper as [19]
Depression is associated with a lack of social integration or social disengagement.
“Depression has also been shown to be associated with a lack of social integration or social disengagement [17-19].”
From Behavioral Activation and Depression Symptomatology: Longitudinal Assessment of Linguistic Indicators in Text-Based Therapy Sessions (2021) · cites this paper as [19]
Changes in established LIWC variables are consistent with case-control differences demonstrated in prior research, with tone and first-person plural pronouns increasing as symptoms decrease and first-person singular pronoun usage decreasing with improvement in symptoms.
“Changes in established LIWC variables are consistent with case-control differences demonstrated in prior research [14,19,20], with tone and first-person plural pronouns increasing as symptoms decrease and first-person singular pronoun usage decreasing with improvement in symptoms.”
From Behavioral Activation and Depression Symptomatology: Longitudinal Assessment of Linguistic Indicators in Text-Based Therapy Sessions (2021) · cites this paper as [19]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Wiltsey Stirman, S., & Pennebaker, J. W.
- Affiliations
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- ORCID
- Pennebaker, James W.
- Venue
- Psychosomatic Medicine
- Published
- 2001-07
- Volume
- 63
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 517-522
- ISSN
- 0033-3174 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2082556623
- Cited by
- 547
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 32 · 2022: 35 · 2021: 40 · 2020: 35 · 2019: 32 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 26 · 2016: 42 · 2015: 31 · 2014: 26 · 2013: 20 · 2012: 24
- FWCI
- 10.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychosomatic Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH052391, MH52391)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health via Writing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Poetry Analysis and Criticism
- Keywords
- suicide, poetry, self-absorption, communication, LIWC, text analysis, language use
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Ego, Female, Humans, Internal-External Control, Male, Middle Aged, Poetry as Topic, Psycholinguistics, Semantics, Social Isolation, Suicide
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