Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-t5pn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T10:38:06.263Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Suicide in Hong Kong

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

P. M. Yap
P. M. Yap*
Affiliation:
Hong Kong Government Lecturer in Psychiatry, Hong Kong University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Enquiry into the occurrence and the pattern of S.† in different cultures promises to reveal information of importance, but there is as yet inadequate material from which definite conclusions can be drawn. Cavan (1928) and Dublin and Bunzel (1933) devoted chapters of their works on S. to this aspect of the subject. These, however, were but poorly assorted collections of descriptive items from various ethnologists, orientalists, and historians, and from them few significant relationships between S. and culture could have been deduced. Zilboorg (1936, 1937) tried to build a concept of S. as a preformed, archaic behavioural reaction on ethnological data, but it must be admitted that valuable though this formulation is he has made somewhat tendentious use of his material in weaving them into the fabric of psycho-analytic theory. His arguments have been subjected to criticism by Wile (1937). Ellenberger (1953) cited examples of S. from various cultures that could be classified under the three components of the S. impulse described by Menninger (1938), viz., the wish to die, the wish to be killed, and the wish to kill. Such a classification, however, cannot cover all the facts. The social sanctioning of S. for different motives in different cultures would seem to argue against the notion that S. everywhere involves the same “components”. The view that S. is rare in elementary and compactly organized societies has long been held, and has recently been confirmed as far as the Yorubas of West Africa are concerned by Lambo (1956).

Type
Original Articles
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 104 , Issue 435 , April 1958 , pp. 266 - 301
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1958 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alabaster, E., Notes and Commentaries on Chinese Criminal Law, 1899, pp. 303ff. London.Google Scholar
Anzures, P., J. Phil. Is. med. Ass., 1927, 7, 235.Google Scholar
Batchelor, I. R. C., Brit. med. J., 1953, ii, 1186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Idem, J. Ment. Sci., 1954, 100, 451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloch, H. A., Disorganization, Personal and Social, 1952, pp. 16ff. New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bond, H., Brit. med. J., 1931, ii, 234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cavan, R. S., Suicide, 1928, pp. 36, 77ff., 112, 314, 317. Chicago.Google Scholar
Chen, Ta, Population in Modern China, 1946, pp. 100, 101. Chicago.Google Scholar
Dahlberg, G., Svenska Lakartidn., 1944, 41, 1649. Quoted by Dahlgren (1945), p. 53.Google Scholar
Dahlgren, K. G., On Suicide and Attempted Suicide, 1945, pp. 43, 51, 53, 58, 61, 71, 145ff., 173ff., 219ff., 221. Lund.Google Scholar
Dublin, L. I., and Bunzel, B., To Be Or Not To Be, 1933, pp. 45, 54, 78, 86, 94, 96ff., 101, 382, 399, 415. New York.Google Scholar
Durkheim, E., Suicide, 1951, pp. 171ff., 241ff. Glencoe, Ill. (Original French Edition, Paris, 1897.)Google Scholar
Ellenberger, H., Mschr. Psychiat. Neurol., 1953, 125, 347. Quoted by Strauss (1956).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evola, J., East and West (Rome), 1955, Year 6, No. 1, p. 41.Google Scholar
Faris, R. E. L., Social Disorganization, 1948, pp. 19, 69ff., 207, 208, 213. New York.Google Scholar
Gamble, S. A., and Burgess, J. S., Pekin: a Social Survey, 1921, pp. 116, 117, 416. New York.Google Scholar
Gunasekara, N. D., J. Ceylon Br. Brit. med. Ass., 1951, 46, 1.Google Scholar
Halbwachs, M., Les Causes du Suicide, 1930, pp. 202, 214. Paris. Quoted by Faris (1948).Google Scholar
Hambro, E., The Problem of Chinese Refugees in Hong Kong, 1955, pp. 17, 18 and Tables III, X, XI, XXV, XXXI and XLIII. Leyden.Google Scholar
Hsu, F. L. K., Americans and Chinese, 1953, p. 63. New York.Google Scholar
Lambo, T. A., Brit. med. J., 1956, ii, 1388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lendrum, F. C., Amer. J. Psychiat., 1953, 90, 479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindemann, E., Epidemiology of Mental Disorder, 1950, pp. 140, 141, 153. New York.Google Scholar
Maclagan, P. J., “Suicide (Chinese)”, in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, 1922, xii, pp. 26ff. New York.Google Scholar
Malzberg, B., Amer. J. Psychiat., 1936, 93, 127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayo, E., The Social Problems of an Industrial Civilization, 1949, pp. 7ff. New York.Google Scholar
Menninger, K. A., Man Against Himself, 1938, pp. 24ff. New York.Google Scholar
Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., Statistical Bulletin, 1927, viii, No. 4, p. 4. New York. Quoted by Sainsbury (1955), p. 85.Google Scholar
Moore, M., New Engl. J. Med., 1937, 217, 291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mowrer, E. R., Disorganization, Personal and Social, 1942, pp. 339, 343, 347ff. Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Murphy, H. B. M., Med. J. Malaya, 1954, 9, 1.Google Scholar
Idem, Flight and Resettlement, 1955, pp. 182ff. Paris.Google Scholar
Odegaard, O., Ment. Hyg., 1936, 20, 546.Google Scholar
O'Neal, P., Robins, E., and Schmidt, E. H., Arch. Neurol. Psychiat., 1956, 75, 275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piker, P., Amer. J. Psychiat., 1938, 95, 97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sainsbury, P., Suicide in London, 1955, pp. 19, 65, 67, 72ff., 75ff., 85, 86. London.Google Scholar
Schmid, C. F., Suicide in Seattle 1914–1925, 1928, p. 373. Seattle. Quoted by Sainsbury (1955), p. 18.Google Scholar
Idem, Amer. J. Sociol., 1933, 39, 30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Idem, Social Saga of Two Cities, 1937, pp. 370ff. Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Idem and Van Arsdol, M. D. Jr., Amer. Sociol. Rev., 1955, 20, 273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schroeder, W. W., and Beegle, J. A., Rural Sociol., 1953, 18, 45.Google Scholar
Strauss, E. B., Brit. med. J., 1956, ii, 818.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strauss, J. H., and Strauss, M. A., Amer. J. Sociol., 1953, 58, 461.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szczepanik, E. F., Far Eastern Econ. Rev., 1955, 19, 385.Google Scholar
Taff, M. A. Jr., Suicides in Hawaii, 1941–50, 1951. Honolulu.Google Scholar
Wicksell, S., Svenska Förenigens for psykisk hälsovard smaskrifter nr 7, 1934. Stockholm. Quoted by Dahlgren (1945), p. 53.Google Scholar
Wile, I. S., Amer. J. Orthopsychiat., 1937, 7, 235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Health Organization, “Mortality from Suicide”, Epidem. and Vital Statistics Report, 1956, 9, No. 4, pp. 243ff., 250ff., 275ff. Geneva.Google Scholar
Zilboorg, G., Amer. J. Psychiat., 1936, 92, 1347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Idem, Amer. J. Orthopsychiat., 1937, 7, 15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.