Fascinating if very sobering transcript of a recent radio broadcast over on the Freakonomics site about the so-called “Suicide Paradox.” As the commentators make clear, the attempt to “make sense” of suicide is a dodgy task from the get-go – if you know someone who has been touched by it, you know that suicide is something that, by definition, defies explanation. The “Why” in particular. Thankfully, the commentators keep their focus on the other, slightly less volatile factors: the “who’s”, “where’s”, and “when’s”. Which doesn’t make the subject any less morbid, but does keep it out of the realm of pure conjecture (sort of).
Many of us are vaguely aware of the corresponding rates of suicide and standard of living, i.e. suicide is something that afflicts the wealthy in particular. What’s not discussed, at least not as frequently, is the undercurrent of expectation which some believe accounts for this relationship. This extends even to the timing of the event, Spring (not Winter) being the most common time that people kill themselves. Not the type of confirmation one wants to find re: the crushing power of ‘should’ but there you have it.
The significant discrepancy in male-female and white-black suicide rates may not exactly be news, but I was caught completely off guard by the figure showing double the amount of suicides than homicides in the US. Except where noted, all the quotes come from Freakonomist Stephen J. Dubner, ht JD:
The preliminary numbers for 2009, the most recent year for which we have data, show there were roughly 36,500 suicides in the U.S. and roughly 16,500 homicides. That’s well over twice as many suicides. So why don’t we hear more about it? Partly because, as Levitt says, most suicides don’t make the news, whereas murders do… But also: they’re different types of tragedy. Murder represents a fractured promise within our social contract, and it’s got an obvious villain. Suicide represents – well, what does it represent? It’s hard to say. It carries such a strong taboo that most of us just don’t discuss it much. The result is that there are far more questions about suicide than answers.
As you drill down into the numbers, one thing that strikes you are the massive disparities – the difference in suicide rates by gender, by race and age, by location, by method and many other variables. In the U.S., for instance, men are about four times as likely to kill themselves as women… [And] there is a seasonal spike – but it’s not in the long, dark days of winter.
[Psychology professor and suicidology expert David] LESTER: In fact, suicide rates peak in the spring in most countries. It’s as if you expect things are going to be better, and when they turn out not to be better you’re more likely to be depressed in a suicidal way.
LESTER: ...I’ve done studies on the quality of life in nations, and the quality of life in the different states in America. And regions with a higher quality of life have a higher suicide rate. Now, quality of life is more than wealth. The people who try and rate the quality of life use a variety of indices, health, education, culture, geography, all kinds of things. So they put more into it than just, you know, median family income, or individual per capita income. And what I’ve argued therefore is it seems to be an inevitable consequence of improving the quality of life. If your quality of life if poor, and it may be you’re unemployed, you’re an oppressed minority, whatever it might be, there’s a civil war going on, you know why you’re miserable. You know as the quality of life in a nation gets better and you are still depressed — well, why? Everybody else is enjoying themselves, getting good jobs, getting promotions, you know, buying fancy cars. Why are you still miserable? So, there’s no external cause to blame your misery upon, which means it’s more likely that you see it as some defect or stable trait in yourself. And therefore you’re going to be depressed and unhappy for the rest of your life.
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4 responses to “Suicidal Paradoxes and the Tragedy of Expectations”
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Have you read Roy Baumeister’s “Is there anything good about men?”
http://www.psy.fsu.edu/~baumeistertice/goodaboutmen.htm
In it he proposes that the role men play in the formation and transmission of culture is (and I consider this a compelling paradox) their utter disposability. What if, at the risk of bringing in possible motive at a sociological level, men who kill themselves may be those who have looked at their place in their social sphere and have concluded that they are disposable and respond to this with a kind of existential despair in which they act out what they consider to be their ultimate disposability? I knew a fellow who considered suicide up until the point where he realized that people who loved him (kids, at that) would have to be told that he’d killed himself and he didn’t want those kids to have to deal with that at such a young age. Another fellow I met who did commit suicide and nearly everyone who knew him in the church was shocked by the action. We have tended to discuss suicide in terms of selfishness and sin as Christians. Sadly the vast majority of those people surprised by the suicide have entirely moved on with their lives and no one seems to have discussed the man’s suicide. In a grim irony a church that talks about the importance of community may not make a man in that community feel any more “useful”.
I won’t say there is never “any” place to discuss that but even if we consider conspicuous suicides in Scripture, such as Samson’s suicide/killing of Phillistines and Saul’s suicide or Judas’ suicide the suicide may not simply be a “selfish” act of self-service, it can be seen as a response driven from shame, from the realization that one’s role within one’s social unit has been destroyed or corrupted by an inherent (so one perceives) inadequacy or irreversible action that cannot be fixed in any way. The response to this realization of judgment and shame then leads to self-destruction as the only form of expiation the man imagines possible. In this respect I propose, tentatively, that suicide is what a man may turn to when he fully confronts as an emotional and personal crisis the prospect of how disposable he feels he is within a social context. Those at the bottom may well already realize how disposable they are considered to society but have no interest in taking themselves out because they do not, if I may be so bold, see themselves as having any role in contributing to the prevailing culture and therefore do not fail on that score because they sense they are already counted as nobodies.