An act of suicide is an enigma. "How can the ego consent to self-destruction?" asked Freud in 1915. Based on this theoretical and clinical observation and on the story of Chantal, this article presents the following approach: either a suicidal act includes a first scene that constitutes a first repetition, or it is the second moment of a trauma. This traumatic repetition may be followed by a re-enactment of the subject's story as of the original and senseless moment of the gesture.
Suicidal gesture; paradox; après-coup; suicide scene