Substitute Families and Suicidal Tendencies of Adolescents and Youths in Kerala, India Today

This article examines rising suicide rates among adolescents and youths in Kerala, India, using Murray Bowen's family systems theory as an interpretive lens. The author argues that emotional cutoff from parents, driven by less-differentiated family relationships and parental projection onto children, pushes young people toward substitute emotional attachments in peer groups, social media, and romantic relationships, which can culminate in suicidal behavior when these substitutes fail or become destructive. Drawing on Kerala suicide statistics and case reports, the author proposes pastoral counseling interventions grounded in Bowenian techniques, including lowering parental anxiety, circular questioning, prayer as triangling with God, and healthy separation during the leaving-home stage, urging counselors to involve whole families rather than treating the adolescent alone.