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The stigma of suicide

Wolverhampton Health Care NHS Trust, Penn Hospital, Penn Road, Wolverhampton WV4 5HA, UK

EDITED BY MATTHEW HOTOPF

The Royal College of Psychiatrists is leading a campaign to reduce the stigma attached to mental illness. Stigmatisation of suicide has very deep roots in our collective thinking and judgement. Suicide was tolerated by the Greeks and Romans (Alvarez, 1990), but Aristotle argued that suicide weakens the economy and upsets the gods, and in so-doing he initiated stigmatisation of the act. Hinduism and Buddhism, among other Eastern religions, have not had a traditionally negative view of suicide. In the Judaeo-Christian tradition, stigma against suicide is not evident until the fourth century; the Bible does not condemn suicide (Barraclough, 1992), but St Augustine considered suicide as unacceptable within Christian values (Pritchard, 1996). Gradually, the stigma against suicide intensified in Europe and became a great sin, shame and eventually a crime. A number of philosophers and writers including William Shakespeare sought to encourage a more understanding and compassionate view but this movement had little impact before Durkheim's studies made clear the social rather than moral origins of suicide (Retterstol, 1993). Although suicide and attempted suicide were decriminalised in 1961 (Levine & Pyke, 1999), we have practised since within a culture of ambivalence wherein stigma is neither high nor totally eliminated. Indeed, the multicultural/multifaith dimension within society and its thinking has complicated matters considerably.

The stigma surrounding suicide remains just high enough to discourage people — especially the elderly — from talking about their suicidal thoughts. Some people feel that they might be labelled as weak, lacking faith, coming from bad families or indeed ‘mad’ if they were to declare their suicidal thoughts. This does not help when we are trying to detect early signs of suicide or reaching out to help victims of despair.

Any approach to prevent suicide should include the removal of blame and stigmatisation of that individual and his or her family. One would hope that all teachers and professionals from the different faiths will take into account this insight into the condition. Scientific approaches and spiritual approaches can work together in order to eliminate this kind of stigma and to make people more comfortable in trying to seek help in their moments of despair.

REFERENCES

Alvarez, A. (1990) The Savage God: A Study of Suicide, pp. 59-93. New York: W.W. Norton.

Barraclough, B. M. (1992) The Bible suicides. Acta Psychiatria Scandinavica, 86, 64-69.[Medline]

Levine, M. & Pyke, J. (1999) Levine on Coroners' Courts. London: Sweet & Maxwell.

Pritchard, C. (1996) Suicide — The Ultimate Rejection? A Psychological Study, pp. 9-28. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Retterstol, N. (1993) Suicide: A European Perspective, pp. 9-21. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

This Article Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Tadros, G. Articles by Jolley, D. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Tadros, G. Articles by Jolley, D.