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Television, according to one theory, leads children to expect quick answers and undermines their ability to tolerate frustration. Says Psychiatrist Mary Giffin, who treats depressed teens on the North Shore: "Programs present serious problems and solve them in half an hour. Life just doesn't work that way." Other experts blame the breakdown of the extended family, the rise of a narcissistic culture and the post-Viet Nam disillusionment with politics. "To some extent, the epidemic of adolescent suicides can be traced back to Viet Nam," says Chicago Psychiatrist Harold Visotsky. "Young people became disillusioned with the magic of government, and this extended to all institutions, including the family."
But why should the suicide rate be so high among the well-to-do? Says Visotsky: "People on the lower end of the social scale expect less than these people. Whatever anger the poor experience is acted out in antisocial ways—vandalism, homicide, riots—and the sense of shared misery in the lower-income groups prevents people from feeling so isolated. With well-to-do kids, when the rattle goes in the mouth, the foot goes on the social ladder. The competition ethic takes over, making the child feel even more alone. He's more likely to take it out on himself, not society." The '60s may have held down the teen-age suicide rate by providing a sense of community, built around drugs and opposition to Viet Nam. "But even that's gone," says Los Angeles Psychiatrist Irving Berkovitz. "There's nothing to distract a teen-ager today."