Konrad Michel

Konrad Michel is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist and prof. emeritus at the University of Bern, Switzerland. He learned to understand the suicidal mind from his extensive clinical work with suicidal patients. His model of suicidal behavior overcomes the limitations of the traditional medical model, which understands suicide as a consequence of mental illness. He is training health professionals all over the world in the use of his person-centered, narrative-based approach to suicidal patients. His main message is: Suicide is not caused by a mental disorder - it is an action which makes sense to the person. Considering the vast number of people who die by suicide without seeking help he calls for promotion and dissemination of suicide literacy as a public health issue. In his book “The Suicidal Person: A New Look at a Human Phenomenon” (Columbia University Press 2023) he describes the development of a new concept of suicide and how people can learn to deal with life-threatening thoughts and plans.