The Idea of Suicide

Download or read book The Idea of Suicide written by Michael J. Kral and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-05-21 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about a new theory of suicide as cultural mimesis, or as an idea that is internalized from culture. Written as part of a new, critical focus in suicidology, this volume moves away from the dominant, strictly scientific understanding of suicide as the result of a mental disorder, and towards positioning suicide as an anthropologically salient, community-driven phenomenon. Written by a leading researcher in the field, this volume presents a conception of suicide as culturally scripted, and it demonstrates how suicide becomes a cultural idiom of distress that for some can become a normative option.