Roerich explores the difficult questions worth asking concerning the effects of mental imagery on how we think and feel. "I have a responsibility to my patients and others suffering from mental illness to help them," remarked Roerich in his statement to the alliance. "You are aware that there exists certain risk factors for suicide. Columbia has developed a 'Teen Screen' to evaluate students and followup with those who score high on their scales. Yet no presently used test or even direct interview can determine with 100% certainty whether a person will actually commit suicide. My research is indicating that a particular mental image appears in the responses from people who take the RPI (my test and interview) which when present indicates that 100% of them are thinking of death, and 90% are thinking of their own death by suicide."

Roerich expressed frustration with criticism of a convergent validity study comparing the new psychodynamic with the classical tests. "Without citing one specific example of what was wrong with the convergent validity study, they said it was bad science, did not prove anything, etc. Now I believe I know what you have gone through in your education. It appears that some professors have already made up their mind on a particular theory or test without objectively looking at the data and coming to a logical conclusion."

Roerich is grappling with a current regime within psychology whose requirements for publication and legitimacy (i.e., rigor, confirmation, conventional discourse) make it difficult for those exploring meaningful questions and challenging phenomena closest to the heart of the human condition to find an audience for their ideas. "Researchers no longer hold on to the idea that dreams are random electrical discharges from neurons in the lower parts of the brain. What science requires is proof of the workings of that phenomena through the scientific method. My work with mental imagery has solid statistical proof that mental imagery has meaning and function. The psychodynamics of our relationships with others, our deep secrets, and our hidden feelings are components of that visual phenomena." In addition to his interest in suicide prevention, Roerich is exploring the proposition that recurring dreams of water signify sexual conflict and intimacy issues.

Roerich can ill afford to set aside his role as doctor to play scientist. As a suicide prevention professional, Roerich performs his research in the trenches with whole persons with acute and potentially fatal distress. He relates to Ehrenfels's call for fluid and phased research from flexible and divergent thinkers. Roerich is skeptical of the skepticism leveled against his research. "Forget about looking at anything knew or that requires careful thought and analysis. It appears that what happened was a knee jerk reaction based on ideological differences and a closed mind on their part...As for those individuals at risk for suicide, those are the people I am fighting for who because of the attitude of some will allow these people to fall through the cracks of present assessment. If a life raft is thrown out it is to a drowning person. Lives could be saved now."