History of suicide

Attitudes towardsuicidehave varied through time and across cultures.

Antiquity to 1700[edit]

At times, suicide played a prominent role in ancient legend and history, like withAjax the Great,who killed himself in theTrojan War,andLucretia,whose suicide in around 510 B.C. initiated the revolt that displaced theRoman Kingdomwith theRoman Republic.

One earlyGreekhistorical person to die by suicide wasEmpedoclesaround 434 B.C. One of his beliefs was that Death was a transformation. It is possible this idea influenced his suicide. Empedocles died by throwing himself into the Sicilian volcanoMount Etna.^[1]

In general, the pagan world, both Roman and Greek, had a relaxed attitude towards the concept of suicide.^[2]^[3]^[4]

TheCouncil of Arles (452)stated "if a slave commits suicide no reproach shall fall upon his master."^[5]There are some precursors of Christian hostility to suicide in ancient Greek thinkers.Pythagoras,for example, was against the act, though more on mathematical than moral grounds, believing that there was only a finite number of souls for use in the world, and that the sudden and unexpected departure of one would upset a delicate balance.Aristotlealso condemned suicide, though for quite different reasons – in that it robbed the community of the services of one of its members.

In Rome, suicide was never a general offense in law, though the whole approach to the question was essentially pragmatic. It was specifically forbidden in three cases: those accused of capital crimes, soldiers and slaves. The reason behind all three was the same – it wasuneconomicfor these people to die. If the accused killed themselves prior to trial and conviction then the state lost the right to seize their property, a loophole that was only closed byDomitianin the 1st century AD, who decreed that those who died prior to trial were without legal heirs. The suicide of a soldier was treated on the same basis as desertion. If a slave killed themselves within six months of purchase, the master could claim a full refund from the former owner.^[6]

The Romans, however, fully approved of what might be termed "patriotic suicide" – in other words, death as an alternative to dishonor. For theStoics,a philosophical sect which originated in Greece, death was a guarantee of personal freedom, an escape from an unbearable reality that had nothing left to give. And so it was forCato the Younger,who killed himself after thePompeiancause was defeated at theBattle of Thapsus.This was a "virtuous death", one guided by reason and conscience. His example was later followed bySeneca,though under somewhat more straitened circumstances, as he had been ordered to do so on suspicion of being involved with thePisonian conspiracyto kill EmperorNero.A very definite line was drawn by the Romans between the virtuous suicide and suicide for entirely private reasons. They disapproved ofMark Antonynot because he killed himself, but that he killed himself for love.

In theMiddle Ages,the Christian churchexcommunicatedpeople who attempted suicide, and those who died by suicide were buried outside consecrated graveyards.^[7]The Church had drawn-out discussions on the edge where the search formartyrdomwas suicidal, as in the case of some of themartyrs of Córdoba.

Changes in attitude[edit]

Attitudes towards suicide slowly began to shift during theRenaissance;Thomas Morethe Englishhumanist,wrote inUtopia(1516) that a person afflicted with disease can "free himself from this bitter life…since by death he will put an end not to enjoyment but to torture...it will be a pious and holy action". It wasassisted suicide,and killing oneself for other reasons was still a crime for people in his Utopia, punished by the denial of funeral rites.John Donne's workBiathanatoscontained one of the first modern defenses of suicide, bringing proof from the conduct of Biblical figures, such asJesus,SamsonandSaul,and presenting arguments on grounds of reason and nature to sanction suicide in certain circumstances.^[8]

A criminal ordinance issued byLouis XIV of Francein 1670 was far more severe in its punishment: the dead person's body was drawn through the streets, face down, and then hung or thrown on a garbage heap. Additionally, all of the person's property was confiscated.^[9]^[10]

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, loopholes were invented to avoid the damnation that was promised by most Christian doctrine as a penalty of suicide. One famous example of someone who wished to end their life but avoid the eternity in hell wasChristina Johansdotter(died 1740). She was a Swedish murderer who killed a child in Stockholm with the sole purpose of being executed. She is an example of those who seek suicide through execution by committing a murder, similar tosuicide by cop.^[11]

The secularization of society that began duringThe Enlightenmentquestioned traditional religious attitudes toward suicide to eventually form the modern perspective on the issue.David Humedenied that suicide was a crime as it affected no one and was potentially to the advantage of the individual. In his 1777Essays on Suicide and the Immortality of the Soulhe rhetorically asked “Why should I prolong a miserable existence, because of some frivolous advantage which the public may perhaps receive from me?”^[8]A shift in public opinion at large can also be discerned;The Timesin 1786 initiated a spirited debate on the motion “Is suicide an act of courage?”^[12]

By the 19th century, the act of suicide had shifted from being viewed as caused bysinto being caused byinsanityin Europe.^[10]^[13]Although suicide remained illegal during this period, it increasingly became the target of satirical comment, such as the spoofadvertisementin the 1839Bentley's Miscellanyfor aLondon Suicide Companyor theGilbert and Sullivan musicalThe Mikado,that satirized the idea of executing someone who had already killed himself.^[14]

By 1879, English law began to distinguish between suicide andhomicide,although suicide still resulted in forfeiture of estate.^[15]In 1882, the deceased were permitted daylight burial in England^[16]and by the mid-20th century, suicide had become legal in much of thewestern world.

Military suicide[edit]

Inancienttimes, suicide sometimes followed defeat in battle, to avoid capture and possible subsequent torture, mutilation, orenslavementby the enemy. TheCaesarean assassins BrutusandCassius,for example, killed themselves after their defeat at the battle ofPhilippi.Insurgent Jews died in a mass suicide atMasadain 74 CE rather than face enslavement by theRomans.^[17]

During World War II, Japanese units would often fight to the last man rather than surrender. Towards the end of the war, the Japanese navy sent pilots to attack Allied ships. These tactics reflect the influence of thesamuraiwarrior culture, whereseppukuwas often required after a loss of honor.^[18]

In recent decades,suicide attackshave been used extensively byIslamist militants.^[19]However, suicide is strictly forbidden byIslamic law,and the terrorist leaders of the groups who organize these attacks do not regard them as suicide, but asmartyrdom operations.They argue the difference to be that in suicide a person kills themselves out of despair, while in a martyrdom operation a person is killed as a pure act. This attitude is not universally held by all Muslim clerics.^[20]

Spies have carriedsuicide pillsto use when captured, partly to avoid the misery of captivity, but also to avoid being forced to disclose secrets. For the latter reason, spies may even have orders to kill themselves if captured – for example,Gary Powershad a suicide pill, but did not use it when he was captured.^{[citation needed]}

Social protest[edit]

Slavesuicide in the United States before theAmerican Civil Warhas been seen as a social protest. Some slaves were portrayed by abolitionist writers, such asWilliam Lloyd Garrison,as those that ended their lives in response to the hypocrisy of theAmerican Constitution.Abolitionists have had differing views on slave suicide. Many cases were published in hope of convincing the public that slaves were protesting the slave society by ending their lives.^[21]

In the 1960s,Buddhistmonks, most notablyThích Quảng Đức,inSouth VietnamgainedWesternpraise in their protests against PresidentNgô Đình Diệmbyburning themselves to death.Similar events were reported in central Europe, such asJan PalachandRyszard Siwiecfollowing theWarsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.In 1970 Greek geology studentKostas Georgakisburned himself to death inGenoa,Italy to protest against theGreek military junta of 1967–1974.^{[citation needed]}

During theCultural Revolutionin China (1966–1976), numerous publicly known figures, especially intellectuals and writers, are reported to have died by suicide, typically to escape persecution, typically at the hands of theRed Guards.Some, or perhaps many, of these reported suicides are suspected by many observers to have, in fact, not been voluntary but instead the result of mistreatment. Some reported suicides include famed writerLao She,among the best-known 20th-century Chinese writers, and journalistFan Chang gian g.^{[citation needed]}

Eliyahu Rips,who studied mathematics in theLatvian University,on April 13, 1969 attempted self-immolation at theFreedom Monumentin Riga in order to protest against theSoviet military invasion of Czechoslovakia.^[22]

References[edit]

^"10 Troubled Historical Figures Who Committed Suicide".HistoryCollection.co.2017-08-06.Retrieved2020-04-18.
^Danielle Gourevitch,"Suicide among the sick in classical antiquity."Bulletin of the History of Medicine43.6 (1969): 501–518.
^John D. Papadimitriou, et al. "Euthanasia and suicide in antiquity: viewpoint of the dramatists and philosophers."Journal of the Royal Society of medicine100.1 (2007): 25–28.online
^Anton J. L. Van Hooff,From autothanasia to suicide: Self-killing in classical antiquity(Routledge, 2002).
^Hefele, Charles Joseph.A History of the Councils of the ChurchClark, Edinburg, 1883, Canon 53.
^Johnstone, Megan-Jane (2008).Bioethics: A Nursing Perspective.Elsevier. p. 297.ISBN 9780729578738.Retrieved11 November2021.
^Gwen Seabourne and Alice Seabourne, "The law on suicide in medieval England."Journal of Legal History21.1 (2000): 21–48.
^^a ^bSuicide.Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2017.
^Pickering, W.S.F., ed. (2000).Durkheim's Suicide: A century of research and debate.London: Routledge. p. 69.ISBN 978-0-415-20582-5.
^^a ^bMaris, Ronald (2000).Comprehensive textbook of suicidology.New York: Guilford Press. p. 540.ISBN 978-1-57230-541-0.
^Watt, Jeffrey Rodgers (2004)From Sin to Insanity: Suicide in Early Modern EuropeCornell University Press^{[ISBN missing]}
^Paula R. Backscheider, Catherine Ingrassia (2008).A Companion to the Eighteenth-Century English Novel and Culture.John Wiley & Sons. p. 530.ISBN 9781405154505.
^Berrios G E & Mohanna M (1990) Durkheim and French Psychiatric Views on Suicide During the 19th Century.British Journal of Psychiatry156: 1-9.
^"A Brief History Of Suicide".Society for Old Age Rational Suicide. Archived fromthe originalon 2014-12-21.Retrieved2013-11-26.
^Irina Paperno (1997).Suicide as a Cultural Institution in Dostoevsky's Russia.Cornell University Press. p. 60.ISBN 0801484251.
^Norman St. John-Stevas (2002).Life, Death and the Law: Law and Christian Morals in England and the United States.Beard Books. p. 233.ISBN 9781587981135.
^Shaye J.D. Cohen, "Masada: literary tradition, archaeological remains, and the credibility of Josephus."Journal of Jewish Studies33.1-2 (1982): 385–405.online^{[permanent dead link]}
^Diego Gambetta, ed.Making sense of suicide missions(Oxford UP, 2005).
^Robert A. Pape,Dying to win: The strategic logic of suicide terrorism(Random House, 2006).
^[1]ArchivedJune 29, 2007, at theWayback Machine
^Bell, Richard (Dec 2012). "Slave Suicide, Abolition and the Problem of Risistance".Slavery & Abolition.33(4): 525–549.doi:10.1080/0144039X.2011.644069.S2CID 144789178.
^"Latvian National archive".The aftermath of Prague spring and Harta 77 in Baltic countries: The Authority and Dissidents.Latvian National archive. 2015-12-27.Retrieved2015-12-27.

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