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The tripartite meaning model and suicidal desire: Differential associations of purpose, mattering, and coherence in undergraduate and community samples
David E. Manuel, Mikayla C. Pachkowski, and E. David Klonsky · Current Psychology
David Manuel
PhD student in Clinical Psychology
University of British Columbia
My research is oriented toward better understanding and preventing suicide. Currently, I am focused on which paths to feeling connected to being alive most buffer against suicide risk.
I also read and think about metascience, measurement, inference, AI and technology more broadly, and the political economy of ideas, especially in the social and behavioural sciences. I write about these topics on my blog, Many Ways to Meliorate.
The throughline between my research, clinical work, and writing is my interest in helping people find specific, tangible positive possibilities they did not think or believe were available to them.
More broadly, I believe in meliorism and am interested in how to tap into excellence and develop phronesis.
Recent research
Recent writing
All writing-
If the robot always agrees
Flattery as a failure mode in AI therapy.
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How come AI gives us information but no insight?
Recursion, forgetting, and long-loop RLHF could help, but at what cost?
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Will AI unlock latent demand for psychotherapy?
A lot more people might get exposure to therapy through an AI.
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Do firearm norms explain the variation in interstate teen suicide deaths?
They clearly matter, but we need a multifactorial explanation centred on capability.
Now
What is this?Right now I’m extending my thesis into a series of papers and revising a paper on psychological pain.
I’m also doing coursework on World Models in Natural and Artificial Intelligence, completing a practicum in CBT for youth, and working on several essays outside my formal research program.
Updated August 2026.