Protest Suicide: A Systematic Model with Heuristic Archetypes

Abstract

Suicide as a form of political protest is a little studied social phenomenon that cannot be dismissed simply as being irrational or patholognomic. We consider protest suicide to be a meaningful social action as purposive political act intended to change oppressive policies or practices. This paper synthesizes theoretical propositions associated with suicide in general, and protest suicide in particular, so as to construct a general explanatory model of protest suicide as a social phenomenon. Then, it analyzes protest suicide as a meaningful social action. People considering protest suicide have to discern the logic of the situation in which such action is to take place. This involves answering two fundamental questions: Is suicide an acceptable course of social action? Is the envisaged protest suicide likely to achieve their hopes, aspirations and goals? How these questions are answered gives rise to a set of protest suicide archetypes. Our analysis generates a more sophisticated understanding of the potential reasons for, and motivations behind, protest suicide as a social phenomenon.

Protest suicide: considerations for psychiatrists and psychologists

“…An action-taker's expectation is to persuade the government to make some reforms and evoke a societal response and encourage them to move. So, protest suicide needs to be spread through the media to make the message of action-taker heard ( 18 ). The spread of protest suicide news often does yield changes in that society.…”

Book review

“…A small number of the other chapters rely extensively on narrative material from those who have attempted suicide, or those close to them. For example, the chapter by Silvia Canetto and Mohsean Rezaiean takes the reader close to the minds of Muslim women, who carry out protest suicides (Spehr and Dixon, 2014). Such action is a purposive political act, intended to change oppressive policies or practices, often including institutionalised violation of human rights, such as the right to education, or paid work, or to get married/ divorced, or to be safe from abuse.…”