The Cultural Meaning of Suicide Paper

The Cultural Meaning of Suicide Paper

The Cultural Meaning of Suicide Paper

DAVID LESTER

The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

ABSTRACT

Scholars sometimes stress that it is important to know the individual meaning of suicide and the cultural meaning of suicide, but the meaning of these terms remains unclear. The present article discusses this problem and suggests that the individual meaning of suicide is best based on the motives for suicide, while the cultural meaning of suicide is best rooted in the lay theories of suicide in which the members of cultures and subcultures believe.

Colucci (2006) drew attention to the fact that theory and research into suicidal behavior has neglected the role of culture. Suicide is typically considered to be the same phenomenon throughout the world, and theories proposed in one region (such as the West) are assumed to apply to other regions. In addition, Colucci pointed out that the cultural meaning of suicide has been neglected except for rare scholars who draw attention to this issue, such as Douglas (1967) and Boldt (1988). However, there appears to be a great deal of confusion over what exactly the “meaning” of suicide refers to and, more especially, the “cultural meaning” of suicide. The purpose of the present article is to examine what these terms mean.

Colucci cited the work of Good and Good (1982) who suggested that the meaning of an illness involves “the metaphors associated with a disease, the ethnomedical theories, the basic values and conceptual forms, and the care patterns that shape the experience of the illness and the social reactions to the sufferer” (p. 148). This encompasses many separate concepts.

2011, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc. doi: 10.2190/OM.64.1.f http://baywood.com

THE PHENOMENON OF SUICIDAL BEHAVIOR

Cultures differ in the frequency of suicidal behavior, the methods chosen for suicide, the distribution by age, sex, and other sociodemographic variables. Many articles have appeared documenting the different suicide rates in a sample of nations and differences in the suicide rates by age and sex from nation to nation (e.g., Levi, La Vecchia, Lucchini, Negri, Saxena, Maulik, et al., 2003). Lester (1994) found that the suicide rates of Chinese populations in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore and the methods used for suicide differed greatly, while sex ratio of the suicide rates and the variation over age was similar in all four nations. Lester (2006) documented great variations in suicidal behavior in the various Muslim nations of the world.

These “facts” about suicide probably have little direct relevance to the meaning of suicide, either at the individual or the cultural level. However, a very high rate of suicide in a nation may make the act seem less psychopathological to the residents of the country and may become a topic of discussion in that nation.

For example, Hungary had one of the highest suicide rates in the world between the two world wars and for many years afterwards, and it is interesting to note in this regard that the most famous “suicide song,” Gloomy Sunday, was written by a Hungarian (although he was living in France at the time (Stack, Krysinska, & Lester, 2007-2008).

In addition, occasionally the most popular method for suicide may become a synonym for the act, as in “taking the pipe” in England in the 20th Century when suicide using domestic gas was the most popular method for suicide.

THE DEFINITION OF SUICIDE

Kleinman (1977) defined the “category fallacy” as the mistake of imposing Western categories on the behavior in other cultures. Lester (2008) provided several examples of cultures that define suicide differently from scholars in the Western world. For example, according to the Mohave, a Native American tribe in the southwest of the United States, a fetus which presents itself in the transverse position for birth, leading to its own death and that of its mother, is viewed as having intended to commit suicide and to murder its mother so that they can be together in the spirit world (Devereux, 1961). Medical examiners and coroners in the rest of the United States would not view such a still-born infant as a suicide.

Counts (1980), who has studied the suicidal behavior of women in the Kaliai district of Papua New Guinea, noted that, in the past, elderly widows sometimes immolated themselves on their husband’s funeral pyre. The German and Australian colonial governors considered this behavior to be a form of ritual murder rather than suicide, and they outlawed it. Counts, however, saw neither term (suicide or murder) as appropriate for this custom since it differed so much from what North Americans and Europeans regard as either suicide or murder.

Neither term describes the behavior, the interpersonal relationships involved, or the attitudes toward the widow and those assisting in her death. Nor do they predict how the community will respond to her death. Recently, some scholars, especially in Europe, have expressed doubts that people engaging in nonfatal suicidal behavior have self-destruction as their aim, and they have begun calling the behavior “self-poisoning” or “self-injury” (e.g., Liisanantti, Ala-Kokko, Dunder, & Ebeling, 2010; Novacek, Jotkowitz, Delgado, Shleyfer, Barski, & Porath, 2005; Ramon, 1980). The semantic implication is that nonfatal suicidal behavior is not “suicide.” Since in most cultures women engage in more nonfatal suicidal actions than do men, this renaming of nonfatal suicidal behavior as self-injury makes “suicidal behavior” less common in women than it was hitherto.

Other suicidologists, on the other hand, include a wider range of behaviors under the rubric of “suicidal behavior.” For example, Menninger (1938) classified behaviors such as alcoholism, drug abuse, and anorexia as chronic suicide since the individuals were shortening their lives by their behaviors. Menninger also classified such behaviors such as polysurgery, self-castration, and self-mutilation as focal suicide, a behavior in which the self-destructive impulse is focused on one part of the body.

These behaviors are often gender-linked. For example, anorexia is more common in women whereas illicit drug abuse is more common in men. Canetto (1991) has speculated that adolescents may respond differentially when under stress, with girls choosing nonfatal suicidal behavior more while boys choose drug abuse more. The use of Menninger’s categories would change greatly the relative incidence of nonfatal suicidal behavior in women and men.

Clearly, the definition of suicide in a culture has implications for the meaning of suicide. In a recent study, Lester and Frank (2008) found that only 59% of a sample of American undergraduate students viewed a protest suicide (such as a self-immolation carried out to protest a government decision) as suicide, and only 70% viewed a suicide bomber as suicidal. Indeed, suicide bombers are viewed as martyrs rather than as suicides by many people in Muslim nations (Abdel-Khalek, 2004).

THE MOTIVES FOR SUICIDE

When we refer to the motives for suicide we are asking why do people engage in the behavior. Menninger (1938) suggested three motives: the desire to escape from life (“to die”); the desire to punish oneself by committing suicide (“to be killed”); and the desire to cause pain to others (“to kill”). Farberow and Shneidman’s (1961) book on attempted suicide was called The Cry for Help, indicating clearly what they thought was the motive behind many acts of attempted suicide.

Several writers have proposed classifications of suicide. Reynolds and Berman (1995) examined ten proposals for a classification of suicidal acts, including those from Durkheim (1897), Menninger (1938), and Baechler (1979). They presented 484 cases of suicide from Baltimore (in the United States of America) to judges and asked the judges to classify each of the suicides into these typologies. Reynolds and Berman found a good deal of overlap between the typologies, and they identified five subtypes which described 86% of the suicides: escapist, confused, aggressive, alienated, and depressed/low self-esteem.

It would be most interesting to take any of these typologies, or better still, that identified by Reynolds and Berman, and classify samples of suicides from different cultures. This might provide clues as to the meaning of suicide in those cultures.

Menninger’s typology focuses on what is going on the minds of suicidal individuals—what their desires are for engaging in the behavior. This approach may help us understand the meaning of suicide for the individual, but it does not help us understand the cultural meaning, unless everyone in the culture has the same desire (or desires) for engaging in the behavior, which is very unlikely.

However, cultures may differ in the relative frequency of individual motives. In one culture, the desire to escape may be common, whereas in another culture, the desire for self-punishment may be common. No study has yet investigated such cultural differences in motives.

THE PRECIPITANTS FOR SUICIDE

A common answer to the question of why an individual committed suicide is to mention the precipitating event. This person’s marriage just ended; this person just lost all their investments and was facing poverty. This approach has not been of much interest for researchers into suicide, and data on precipitants are rarely collected at a cultural level. Japan does make an effort to categorize every suicide for the precipitant.

Lester and Saito (1998-1999) noted that, in 1990 in Japan, the precipitating event was: illness, 43.7%; alcoholism and mental illness, 17.1%; economic hardship, 8.6%; family problems, 7.9%; job stress, 7.2%; relationship problems, 2.7%; and school problems, 1.3%. Joiner (2006) has proposed that feeling that one is a burden to others is a major causal factor in suicide, and this may account for the high incidence of illness as a precipitant for suicide in Japan.

India also attempts to classify each suicide. Using government documents, Lester, Agarwal and Natarajan (1999) noted that the precipitating events of suicides in India in 1990 were categorized as: dreadful disease, 12.8%; quarrels with parents-in-law, 6.2%; quarrels with spouse, 5.8%; love affairs, 4.7%; and poverty, 2.5%. However, in India, 16.2% had no known cause, and 39.0% were classified as “other.”

1 I would like to thank an anonymous reviewer for this suggestion. Lester (2010) has noted that feeling that one is a burden to others seems to be a factor in women becoming suicide bombers.

If these data were collected for cultures as a whole, and if standardized categories were adopted, then cultures could be compared for the relative frequency of the precipitants, and this might give some clues as to the cultural meaning of suicide. For example, if almost half of the suicides in Japan are precipitated by illness, then suicide in Japan may typically be an escape from physical pain and suffering.

Another possibility is that the meaning of suicide in a culture is related to the psychodynamics of the suicide in the culture. Hendin (1964) described the psychodynamics of suicide based on qualitative data that he obtained by visiting and interviewing people in Scandinavian countries. In Denmark, Hendin noted that guilt arousal was the major disciplinary technique employed by Danish mothers to control aggression, resulting in strong dependency needs in their sons.

This marked dependency was the root of depression and suicidality after adult experiences of loss or separation. Reunion fantasies with lost loved ones were common in those committing suicide. In contrast, in Sweden, a strong emphasis was placed by parents on performance and success, resulting in ambitious children for whom work was central to their lives. Suicide typically followed failure in performance and the resulting damage to the individual’s self-esteem.

The psychodynamics of suicide as described by Hendin are obviously related the motives for suicide and to the precipitants for suicide, but they are more in-depth and meaningful. However, it might be quite difficult to replicate Hendin’s methodology for a larger sample of cultures.