Figuratively speaking, reviving a person who has committed suicide is possible. There are cases of death where the motives or evidence are not very clear, so it is not certain whether it is a suicide or a homicide.

For the clarification of doubtful deaths a psychological autopsy is performed . We will talk about it in this article.

What is a psychological autopsy?

The psychological autopsy is a process that involves a multidisciplinary work that brings together doctors, criminologists and psychologists. It is an important technique used within the field of forensic psychology . It is useful for determining causes or resolving cases of suicide, and the development of this technique began by addressing the need to define the cause of death in doubtful cases and in those where medical autopsy does not have sufficient evidence.

The participation of the area of Psychology is fundamental for the process of analysis and decoding of clues. On many occasions, the fact that a death with dubious causes is studied from a single perspective or profession is not enough. A team made up of different health professionals is needed so that each one can analyse the case from his/her point of view and thus arrive at a more accurate and complete result.

The intervention of the forensic psychologist in the clarification of the case is fundamental, since when he or she goes to the scene of the crime he or she can begin to generate a sketch of the subject’s personality by simply seeing the organization of his or her space, furniture, ornaments, etc. In order to achieve this, Schneidman, author of the technique, proposed three fundamental categories to investigate and analyze: the what, the how and the why.

One of the main functions of the psychologist is to interpret the signs and clues at a crime scene . In addition to the medical autopsy, it is required to have access to the clinical history, medical and legal records, notes, letters, diary or anything else that can provide more information about how the subject felt, the thoughts he had before his death, his own and learned ideas. The process starts from the scene of the crime, where not only objective traces can be lifted, but also psychological traces that are imprinted on the places the victim was and on the people who interacted with her.

The MAPI technique

Within the psychological autopsy, the most used and effective technique is the MAPI , whose acronym means the different areas of the individual in question that will be studied.

1. Mental

It refers to intelligence, memory, attention, judgment and cognition. With this there may be reference to cognitive abilities and skills .

2. Emotional or affective

Analyzes development and changes in mood. It is fundamental because it is the one that studies the subject’s mental state , whether there was any predisposition to suicidal behaviour or ideas or whether there were recurrent depressive episodes or the presence of some other disorder.

3. Psychosocial

It focuses on the background, since birth, how was his childhood, adolescence, etc. Similarly, it looks at relationships with people in non-neighbouring circles and important changes throughout your life.

4. Interpersonal

It focuses on relationships with family and friends . The importance of this is that people who were close to the deceased and who contribute to the research process can be contacted. Now then… how should the interviews with the friends and family of the deceased be carried out? Let’s look at it.

Interviews of people close to the deceased

Carrying out interviews with people close to the deceased is the final step of this tool so used in psychological autopsy. Doing this has two main purposes:

  1. Knowing more about the victim , his personality, character, daily activities and everything about which there is no written record or physical evidence.
  2. It serves as a therapeutic form for family and close friends , as they often express their feelings and thoughts about the situation.

It is established that the optimal time to perform them is from 1 to 6 months after the event. Doing them earlier can be counterproductive because the feelings and emotions are still very fresh and can affect interpretation and recall. And doing them after the stipulated time, can cause the memories to be no longer clear and people try to remake them or fill in the blanks they have with incorrect or false facts or elements.

The psychological autopsy is a new tool , barely developed in the 21st century, but in a short time it has proven to be useful in many cases where medicine had not been sufficient to determine the causes of death. Any process related to human beings, even death, is extremely complex due to the nature of man. This is why it needs to be approached from a broad and multidisciplinary perspective.