Suicidality Research

Artistic work itself has been thought of as a life-saving behaviour for some suicidal artists. Artistic depictions of suicide can also have a contagion effect, causing suicides among members of the real-world audience. Guidelines are still needed for institutions such as the motion picture industry for minimising possible copycat effects of suicides in feature films and other artistic displays of suicide. Perhaps one of the most important reasons for studying suicide art is for insights into the motives for suicide. Artists portrayed many motives for suicide long before the rise of the science of suicidology in the 20th Century. Motives including social factors such as death of a loved one, honour, economic strain, and betrayal in love have roots in many historical artistic products. Sophocles's plays, dating from 2,500 years ago, contain several motives that are still found today. The history of suicide in art, especially if film is included, may be subject to continuities as well as changes in the motives for suicide. While the visual arts may have drifted away from certain causes of suicide, such as heroicism, these causes may actually live on in other art forms including film and opera. The present volume stresses a holistic approach to the study of suicide in art. Patterns in one art venue may be both similar and different to those in other venues. Hence, caution needs to be exercised in making generalisations on the basis of one or a few modalities of artistic creations.

Powerful meditations on the nature & limits of human understanding.

Philosophers know suicide primarily as an ethical problem. But in Expression and Survival, Craig Greenman argues that, when it comes to suicide, the standard ethical approach may do more harm than good. He develops instead an aesthetic approach, arguing that art-making it or experiencing it-can help a suicidal person survive. Drawing on the work of philosophers and artists, as well as his own experiences, Greenman guides the reader through the landscape to which many suicidal people feel condemned. He traces the problem back to antagonism-we harm others and they harm us-and argues that art, broadly construed, can help us survive it. The result will be of interest to ethicists, aestheticians, social and political philosophers, therapists, and anyone who has ever struggled with suicide. Also included in this volume are two essays, Writing and Ambivalence and What Is Philosophy?