A sizeable proportion of the Irish public woke up on Wednesday morning to find themselves cast as spectators and witnesses to an untimely death - a young man drowning in the River Liffey. This was not some poignant movie or new drama documentary but came to us courtesy of the Star newspaper.

Predictably, those who took the decision to publish this material resorted to the usual cliched justification, claiming that their noble aim was to open up the debate about suicide in this country.

This is indeed a worthy goal in itself. But one might ask if the editorial department of the Star has been in some kind of monastic settlement for the past five years, when there has been a determined effort to comprehend the incomprehensibility of suicide?

With notable exceptions, the media has been very responsible in promoting debate and changing attitudes on this issue. Indeed, the public concern evoked by mature media coverage of suicide has assisted the establishment of the National Task Force on Suicide.

It behoves editors to be circumspect in how matters as sensitive as suicides are covered. A raft of studies from countries as diverse as Germany, the United States and Austria confirms the so-called "Werther effect", or "copy-cat" suicide as it is popularly called.

It is estimated that one in five suicides in the US is imitative of a recent suicide.

In Vienna, the city council persuaded the local newspapers to change how they reported and placed news stories on subway suicides, having noted a much decreased rate of suicide deaths using this method. The outcome of changing the reports to providing factual information only, moving reports to the lower half of the second page and refraining from examination of possible causes led to a substantial reduction in the suicide rate.

The stark reality is that the coverage of suicide does influence its rate.

Media coverage is not, of course, the only factor influencing the suicide rate. The causes of suicide in the 1990s are multiple and complex and include both individual factors such as untreated depressive illness or personal crises. Typically, the break-up of a relationship with a family member or partner, and broader social factors, particularly feelings of alienation and hopelessness coupled with moral and personal uncertainty.

The causes are best thought of as a cocktail of fragility - fragile self, fragile identity and fragile society. In arguing that the publication of a jolting and shocking photograph might have the beneficial effect of restraining even one person from self destruction, the Star has demonstrated total naivety. If suicide were a rational and existential choice then the approach might have some merit.

The belief that the memory of a horrific photograph might influence the life or death decision of some person at some future date is based on the very basic misapprehension that the person contemplating suicide holds the same moral, ideological and cognitive mind set as the rest of us who are content with living.

The clinical evidence based on investigation of the suicidal person is that the feelings of hopelessness are not amenable to logical argument; their despair is profound and the vista of floating on the water - in the way depicted in the Star's front page may even be potentially appealing to fragile people. It is therefore indefensible to publish sensitive material concerning life-threatening behaviour without first examining the scientific knowledge relating to this. Did the Star contact the Samaritans for their view on the publication of this photograph? Did it lift the telephone to discuss with a mental health professional the likelihood of achieving their goal of influencing "even one person" against suicide?

The causes of suicide defy simple explanation and in consequence suicide is difficult to prevent. The problem of prevention is not unique to Ireland and is repeated throughout Europe with some notable exceptions. The view that a single sensational photograph would be seismic in influencing the increasing rate in this country is based on arrogance almost of delusional proportions.

Many want simple answers to complex problems in our society and the superficial, reflexive response of The Star to this difficult problem is a manifestation of this need. The hysteria underlying the thinking behind such publicity is likely to create a suicide industry rather than promoting reflective examination of the issue.

The media has assisted in highlighting and debating suicide and its prevention. However, the efforts of the large body of journalism committed to addressing this issue in a mature way has been catapulted backwards. The only seismic effect has been on sales of the Star newspaper last Wednesday, a day when cynicism was writ large.

Dr Patricia Casey is professor of clinical psychiatry at UCD/ Mater Hospital