The stigma of suicide in our culture begins in Greece, where suicide was considered an impious act towards the gods and which also deprived the community of one of its members. Later, Rome would take up this legacy and strictly prohibit suicide.
Although the first Christian communities tolerated suicide to a certain extent, the church, starting with Saint Augustine, expressly condemns it, considering it a homicide of oneself and a clear violation of the fifth commandment, “thou shalt not kill.” Suicide is a sin and the suicidal person is a sinner.
In the Middle Ages, this hostility towards suicides reached atrocious extremes, dragging their bodies after death, humiliating them in a thousand and one ways and, above all, denying them burial.
With the Renaissance the weight of the religious idea of sin was lightened and the notion of suicide as a personal choice made its way, but always connecting with psychopathological alterations
Starting in the 18th century, suicide was definitively secularized and decriminalized, but it remained invariably linked to mental illness. Although suicide is not considered a mental illness in itself, it is associated with all types of pathologies.
This journey currently leads us to address an increasingly present scourge with the historical weight of stigma, sin and mental illness To which we should add the popular belief, including the scientific community, of the need to not make suicide and suicidal behavior visible, otherwise causing the so-called “call effect”.
This thesis has its roots in the so-called Werther Effect, associated with Goethe’s work “The Sorrows of Young Werther” (1774), which narrates in diary form the protagonist’s pain due to a lack of love that ends with his suicide. The success of the work was enormous. However, the number of suicides skyrocketed, this phenomenon being attributed to the contagion of many young people identified with the suffering of young Werther.
Scientific evidence does not support this idea, pointing in another direction. The literature concludes that The imitation of these suicidal behaviors occurs when it is communicated in a romanticized way idealizing the discomfort or presenting only the suicides of media or reference figures.
Given the stubbornness of the figures, this approach to suicidal behavior is under review. In 2020, 3,941 people took their lives in our country, without going any further. The highest number ever seen. Around 300 of those people were young people between 14 and 29 years old. Suicide is currently the main cause of death among young people between 16 and 23 years old. In other words, a person takes their own life every 2 and a quarter hours. 11 people a day.
The Papagen Effect
Today we have enough data and research to affirm that Talking about suicide in an appropriate way does not increase the possibility of its completion This is what is called the Papageno Effect, which owes its name to a character in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.” Papageno, hopeless, plans to commit suicide, but three child spirits dissuade him by presenting him with other alternatives to death.
It seems proven that when suicide is talked about in a responsible, empathetic way and offering alternatives, the result is positive and undoubtedly helps save lives. This reality is gaining strength, being at the basis of the current tendency to lift the veil in the face of this hitherto silent scourge.
More myths about suicide
Throughout 2021, suicide has begun to be talked about openly. Thus, September 10 has been declared world suicide prevention day. And in our country we already have a suicide prevention line, in the public system, accessible anonymously through 024. We stopped considering it a taboo topic and started talking about it, which has been proven to have a great preventive effect.
Another myth about suicide is considering that it only affects people who suffer from psychiatric disorders or symptoms. Scientific literature has shown that Suicidal behavior is a complex and multifactorial problem, which is not due to a single cause, and in which psychological, social, biological, cultural and environmental factors intervene. Most often, these factors act cumulatively, increasing the person’s vulnerability to suicidal behavior.
Although the prevalence ratios of different pathologies as risk factors (depression, above all) are high, it cannot be derived from this that suicidal behaviors are exclusive to people who suffer from mental illnesses. In other words, not all people who commit suicide suffer from a mental illness, nor do all mentally ill people commit suicide, although this is an important predictive factor.
We will quote to finish another suicide myth that states that suicide is hereditary, something that usually scares the affected close relatives a lot. There are no studies that support the existence of genetic determinism.
What can be inherited is a predisposition to suffer from a mental illness, such as depression, but whether this illness can develop will depend on multiple environmental factors and, if applicable, it would not necessarily have to culminate in completed suicide.
In conclusion
We have to bury this stigma forever and open a social and human debate at all levels and strata in order to prevent these behaviors and alleviate the suffering of victims and affected relatives. The more light, the less risk, the more communication, the better prevention.
Author: Javier Elcarte. Founder and director of Vitaliza. Trauma specialist.
