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Background: Ambivalence towards life and death has been identified by Shneidman, Farberow, Kovacs and Beck, and others as a primary and defining attribute of suicidal individuals.However, presently there is no measure of ambivalence that could be used to assess this unique and potentially important attribute of suicidal thinking.Methods: An anonymous online survey, of over 300 international participants, asked for responses to over 100 questions related to ambivalence towards life and death.Suicidal behaviours, depressive symptoms, and other factors related to suicide risk were also assessed.Results: Factor Analysis results led to the construction of a viable scale to assess ambivalence, which may meaningfully differentiate suicidal from non-suicidal respondents.Additional psychometric tests show the Life-Death Ambivalence Scale (LDAS) to be sound and internally reliable.General Linear Modelling demonstrates the scales capacity to meaningfully differentiate between high-risk and low-risk groups.Conclusion: The LDAS may prove to be a useful tool for better understanding the suicidal mind, and could be valuable in suicide prevention efforts.Research and clinical implications will be further discussed.