[Sexuality of suicidal elderly].

Sexuality and suicidality in the elderly seem to underlie a taboo in science and in therapeutic practice. It is urgent to find an understanding about both aspects of human experience and behaviour by explorative studies. In a sample (N=67), the narratives of 56 persons (suicidal=43 and non-suicidal=23) on questions concerning their sexuality were transcribed and ideal types were developed with the systematic qualitative method of forming types by understanding. Four of these types consist of clearly more suicidal persons, in two the non-suicidals predominate, the rest is more heterogeneous in this aspect. Some of these types can be interpreted unequivocally. One type was surprisingly clearly suicidal dynamic, while others were a "female narcissistic" or a "male narcissistic" type. This explorative typology may help the interested therapist/counsellor as a landmark to relate to sexuality as an important aspect of life, even in old age, and to use the discussion of sexuality to improve the understanding of patients, especially in suicidal crisis.