Cover picture

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus. Attrib. Pieter Breughel the Elder, c. 1554-5.

The Bridge is a documentary by director Eric Steel that records 24 suicides from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Steel has compared the images of

the jumpers to the painting Landscape with the fall of Icarus because the fatal leaps go almost unnoticed by passers-by. In the corner of the painting, a pair of legs disappears into the water with a splash so small it is hardly noticed by the other people in the picture. One of the stories told in The Bridge is that of Kevin Hines, a young man with bipolar disorder who decided midway in his jump that he wanted to live and positioned his body into a sitting posture before he hit the water. He survived, but with severe damage to his back. Kevin recalls standing on the bridge crying for 40 minutes before making the jump. The only person to approach him was a German tourist, oblivious to his tears, who asked him to take her picture. Text by Pavan Chahl, extracted from Psychiatric Bulletin, vol. 33, p. 120. With thanks to Zosia O'Connor.

Image B Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels.

Photograph: Ro scan, J. Geleyns.

We are always looking for interesting and visually appealing images for the cover of the Journal and would welcome suggestions or pictures, which should be sent to Professor Robert Howard, British Journal of Psychiatry, 17 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PG, UK or robert.howard@iop.kcl.ac.uk