Definition of Suicide by Edwin Shneidman

Author:Edwin Shneidman [Edwin Shneidman]
Language: eng
Format: epub

PART FOUR

COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF SUICIDE

K HEADNOTE

The key question about suicide and the best approach to understanding suicide may indeed be isomorphic, one and the same. That question and the approach that it embodies is: What are the common overtly discernible and sensibly inferred characteristics of suicidal acts? I have developed 10 characteristics, postdictively, of individuals who have committed suicide and, paradictively, of individuals who are about to commit suicide. These 10 common characteristics are grouped under six different aspects of suicide. These are the situational, conative, affective, cognitive, relational, and serial aspects of suicide. These common characteristics of suicide are the bones and guts of this book.

The 10 commonalities answer the key question: What are the interesting, relevant common dimensions of committed suicide? They are what suicide is. They tell us what suicide is like on the inside, and what is sensible about it to the person who does it at the moment of its doing. I view these characteristics as reflecting a view of suicide influenced (if not illuminated) by the study of personology, systems theory, and a common-sense cosmological scheme.

Inasmuch as I emphasize the common characteristics of suicide, a few words about “common” may be useful. Each suicide is an idiosyncratic event. In suicide, overall, there are no universals, absolutes, or “alls.” The best that one can reasonably hope to discuss are the most frequent (“common”) characteristics that accrue to most committed suicides and to make this discussion in as reasonable and as ordinary a language as possible.

The issue of precision versus relevance touches even definition. Recognizing that suicidology (or psychology or psychiatry) does not have the veridical value of the laws of physiology or physics, I do not feel pressured to formulate a definition of suicide that might account for every imaginable esoteric, recondite or arcane occurrence of self-destruction. I am reminded of the flawed definition of Maurice Halbwachs (1930, p. 479):

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