Contextual-Conceptual Therapy

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Copy of 10 "Radical" Questions about Suicide

by Fredric Matteson - CCT Founder

[“radical” = of or going to the root or origin of something]

“If you get rid of the pain before you have answered its questions, you get rid of the self along with it.”
~ Carl Jung

If for the moment, you could choose to not believe or disbelieve, how different would your thinking be? What new questions would you come up with, if for this moment you could “play” with   – i.e. become curious about – the following statements being true?

WHAT IF:

1.     The problem of suicide is not about illness, but about wellness?

2.     Suicide is not about what is “wrong with you” – but about what is “right with you?”         

3.     A suicidal person feels suicidal – not because the person is “unstable” – but because the person is “too stable?”

4.     Suicide is not about the person’s “worst” thinking – but about their “best” thinking?

5.     Suicide is not the problem – but a symptom of the problem?

6.     It’s not that they “don’t know the solution, but that they don’t know the problem?”

7.     Suicide is not due to a “mental illness” – but due to a “spiritual identity crisis?”

8.     Suicide is a context-bound problem? (i.e. What is the context or “big picture” of what is happening?)

9.     The suicidal person doesn’t need new answers. They need new questions?

10. Instead of getting more serious about suicide we need to get more playful?

                                       *     *     *     *     *

We need to be looking for new questions, not new answers.