Suffering, Frustration, and Anger: Class, Gender and History in Sri Lankan Suicide Stories

Abstract

This paper explores competing stories of suffering, frustration and anger that shape the performance and reception of suicidal behaviours in contemporary Sri Lanka. Drawing from the results of 21 months of ethnographic fieldwork, I show how suicidal acts fit within broader narratives of class and gender experience and expression that draw from contemporary and historical 'folk' and 'state' discourses. Debates over whether suffering, frustration and anger are legitimate socio-effective states to exhibit come to determine the kinds of claims and counter-claims that suicidal people on the one hand, and those charged with their treatment and management on the other, can make with regard to the efficacy of suicide as a means of social action. Through such debates-not only what it means to be suicidal in Sri Lanka but also what it means to be middle class or working class, male or female, etc. are made and remade anew.

Suicide in Sri Lanka 1975–2012: age, period and cohort analysis of police and hospital data

“…It may also be that the years of poverty/stress accumulate as these men get older and increase suicide risk. It is also possible that as ageing is often associated with losses in income and occupation, especially in South Asian countries [45], older men experience a loss of status; this loss of status may then in turn increase their risk of suicide [46]. …”

“…This environment gives rise to strained family relationships; in addition with economic and social changes, more young women are entering the work force, both locally and internationally. This group of women are threatening the conventional gender and generational hierarchy and this often leads to family arguments due to shifts in power [46, 47]. Attempts to address these issues may help to reduce the elevated rate seen in this group.…”

Precarious ethics: Toxicology research among self-poisoning hospital admissions in Sri Lanka

“…Hurting themselves, they also demonstrate their pride or hurt to family and friends while at the same time eliciting shame and regret (Marecek, 2000(Marecek, , 2006. Following Marecek's work, Malathi de Alwis argues that suicide/self-harm has become a normalised part of everyday experiences and relationships (De Alwis, 2012, and for a detailed description of the socio-affective states that lead to selfharm, see Widger, 2012). Insult, slight, affront, argument or being shamed in some way can result in what Spencer has termed a 'karmic entrapment' (Spencer, 1990).…”

“…Relatives are made to suffer for the hurt they have caused and theirs will be the awful karmic inheritance of having caused a loved one's death. The inclusion of others in acts of self-harm in Sri Lanka thus raises the possibility that in many cases the objective may not necessarily have been self-harm but a high-risk strategy to attract attention to personal distress (Widger, 2012).…”

“…She argues that people have few means to deal with confrontation in other ways than through violence, be it towards self or others (Bolz, 2002). These arguments would suggest that self-harm is symptomatic of a desensitisation to violence in a society that has been struggling with major political upheavals for the past 30 years (but for an alternative view on the role of war and other political upheavals, see Gunnell et al, 2007b;Widger, 2012).…”