4 ms·

It's impossible to measure, but I wonder what % of suicides happens because of the culture that we live in. A lot of times when you read about someone commiting

It's impossible to measure, but I wonder what % of suicides happens because of the culture that we live in. A lot of times when you read about someone commiting suicide it's blamed on that individual or their mental health - but is that really the root issue? How many of the suicides wouldn't happen if society was set up in a different way?

acover 5y ago
I think it's part of who we are. Suicides happen in tribal cultures - https://www.jstor.org/stable/658295 https://www.jstor.org/stable/658295
xtracto 5y ago
I think you are onto something. An example for me would be, someone committing suicide in the USA due to the perception of having to confront some incredible stressful event in the future; whereas the exact same situation in another country (with different culture) would not yield the same weight to that person. As an example, take Jeffrey Epstein suicide (let's assume thats what happen). He might have sought that exit given his possible future perspectives. Had he been in Mexico (where I live) he may have had a different (more lenient) perspective of his future.
- deleted 5y ago
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yCombLinks 5y ago
I think the culture is extremely relevant. If you look at this map on the right: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_differences_in_suicide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_differences_in_suicide You'll see China is a significant outlier, being the only country with a higher suicide rate for women than men. All of the western nations have rates between 3.5 and 4 as many men commit suicide as women, a shockingly high difference.
tolbish 5y ago
This is it. It would be quite the sight to see people with real money/power (Jeff Bezos, for instance) discuss that.
jlos 5y ago
The is basically Durkheims conclusion: suicide is the outcome of sociological, rather than psychological, forces. [0] There is an argument that a lot of the mass shootings are actually better classified as a type of suicide under this model as well [1] [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_(Durkheim_book) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_(Durkheim_book) [1] https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2019/08/mass-shootings-and-mile-durkheim https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2019/08/mass-shoo...
- FinanceAnon 5y ago
  Thanks for the links, they are very interesting!

acover 5y ago

I think it's part of who we are. Suicides happen in tribal cultures - https://www.jstor.org/stable/658295 https://www.jstor.org/stable/658295

xtracto 5y ago

I think you are onto something. An example for me would be, someone committing suicide in the USA due to the perception of having to confront some incredible stressful event in the future; whereas the exact same situation in another country (with different culture) would not yield the same weight to that person. As an example, take Jeffrey Epstein suicide (let's assume thats what happen). He might have sought that exit given his possible future perspectives. Had he been in Mexico (where I live) he may have had a different (more lenient) perspective of his future.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

yCombLinks 5y ago

I think the culture is extremely relevant. If you look at this map on the right: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_differences_in_suicide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_differences_in_suicide You'll see China is a significant outlier, being the only country with a higher suicide rate for women than men. All of the western nations have rates between 3.5 and 4 as many men commit suicide as women, a shockingly high difference.

tolbish 5y ago

This is it. It would be quite the sight to see people with real money/power (Jeff Bezos, for instance) discuss that.

jlos 5y ago

The is basically Durkheims conclusion: suicide is the outcome of sociological, rather than psychological, forces. [0] There is an argument that a lot of the mass shootings are actually better classified as a type of suicide under this model as well [1] [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_(Durkheim_book) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_(Durkheim_book) [1] https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2019/08/mass-shootings-and-mile-durkheim https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2019/08/mass-shoo...

FinanceAnon 5y ago
Thanks for the links, they are very interesting!