SUICIDE HAS BEEN called a "victimless" act—that is, one that punishes only the person who commits it. But in fact many people are deeply affected whenever someone commits suicide. It has been estimated that in America every year the lives of a quarter million people besides the victims are directly affected by suicide. These people, often called suicide survivors, are the ones left behind.

People who experience the death of someone close normally go through a period of intense grief and mourning after the initial shock wears off. In time, most people move on with their lives. One woman whose father shot himself because he was terminally ill grieved for about a year before her life was back to normal. For others, such as the brothers and sisters of a college-age woman who killed herself by slashing her wrists, the...