Resource Tag: POLITICAL MOTIVATION

One of the most well-established truths in suicidology is that mental disorders play a significant role in at least 90% of suicides, and a causal relationship between the two is often implied. In this article, the authors argue that the evidence base for this truth is weak and that there is much research questioning the […]

This article seeks to illuminate the cultural frame of reference for the suicide of Miasnikov (a Russian art student) & its subsequent reception. The author first outlines the tradition of noble suicide in Russia, which arose as a direct consequence of Westernization in the eighteenth centurey & reached a highpoint with the Decembrist movement. Discussion […]

This study highighted the demographic profile, examined methods of self-inflicted burns, & explored precipitating factors in Jamshoro, Pakistan over a period of 8 years. 154 cases with self-inflicted burns were divided into 2 groups: sucide attempters & self-immolators. Self-immolators were considerably younger than suicide attempters. Males dominated in the self-immolators group while females outnumbered males […]

In this letter to the editor, the authors comment on an article by Kazim et al (2008) on suicide bombings. Zafar & Fatima assert misinterpretation of facts emerges as a persistent theme in the literature. (7 refs.)

Most modern theories do not emphasize the idea of heroic suicide. The high profile, politically motivated suicides in early colonial Ibadan (Nigeria) discussed in this paper epitomize this type of suicide. It is suggested the key to understanding these cases is to be found not only in the people’s multilayered past – the general Yoruba […]

Contrary to Durkheim’s theory of suicide during wartime, the Netherlands had high suicide rates in 1940 & 1945. To explain these findings, the authors propose the social integration theory, according to which, people who expect to be excluded from society are more likely to die by suicide. This idea is examined using individual-level data on […]

This article reviews the literature on suicide bombing. It addresss the question of just how much a psychological understandng of the individuals involved can aid in prevention. Historical, epidemiological, & cultural perspectives are examined & the nonpsychological & psychological approaches to suicide bombing are compared. On the basis of the material available, it seems social […]

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Despite the number of self-inflicted deaths in Toni Morrison’s novels & the fact that she wrote her master’s thesis on alienation & suicide in Faulkner & Woolf, there has been little critical attention given to the repetition of self-destruction in her works. This essay reviews Morrison’s novels & argues that suicide operates on two revolutionary […]

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This article examines the psychology of a suicide bomber. The suicide bomber is examined from a psychohistorical, mythological, & psychoanalytic perspective. Suicide bombers can sometimes express internal frustrations, which are communicated through various primitive defenses: shame, fear of dependency, unresolved Oedipal issues, & omnipotent denial. The author attributes the underlying conflicts in Islam as having […]

In this paper, the author aims to be provocative by suggesting a variety of perspectives (or meanings) for suicide, in the hopes that some of them will stimulate readers’ thinking about suicide. (97 refs)

This article discusses the events of September 11, 2001 & public response to the terrorists attacks. Particularly, the author highlights signs of large-group regression, the phenomenon of suicide bombers, the education of suicide bombers, the next generation of suicide bombers, & regression in the US as a result of September 11. (34 refs)

To examine sociodemographic correlates of views of self-immolation, the authors carried out semi-structured interviews with 54 Kurdish refugees. The majority of these refugees indicated that they did not expect self-immolations to help in obtaining freedom for Kurdistan. Their opinions on the issue were uniform across educational & occupational levels, gender, number of years since escape, […]

This article discusses the actions of four black men who took five white people hostage during a court trial in 1970. At the time, three of the men were serving prison sentences & claimed that their actions were a revolutionary attempt to attain their freedom. Knowing the situation might lead to their own deaths, they […]