The lure of death: suicide and human evolution

Humphrey, Nicholas

doi:10.1098/rstb.2017.0269

Cited by 32 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…According to some prominent authors, suicide can be understood as a way to escape, through death, from a state of unbearable inner pain ( 12 – 14 ). Death will put an end to that pain because the self will disappear ( 15 ). Psychological pain is a core dimension in suicide and can predict future suicidal behavior, independently of depressive symptoms or suicidal ideation ( 16 , 17 ).…”

Section: Psychological Pain As Core Dimension In Suicidementioning

confidence: 99%

Learning From Artemisia’s Lucretia: Embodied Suffering and Interoception in Suicide

Courtet¹,

Guillaume²

2020

Front. Psychiatry

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In the painting "Lucretia," Artemisia Gentileschi, one of the major painters of the 17 th century, depicts Lucretia's suicide. This artwork empathic vision offers the spectator the apprehension of a unique phenomenon where psychological pain is transformed into selfaggression. To understand why the body becomes an object to attack, it is important to study the role of interoception and self-awareness in the suicidal process. This essay discusses how bodily representations are crucial for interacting efficiently and safely with the outside world and for establishing the sense of self. It presents some of the available evidence showing that alterations in the body representation and in the sensations perceived by it contribute to suicide. Indeed, neuroimaging studies show that social environmental factors and their biological consequences in the body (e.g., increased neuroinflammation) can alter the neural networks of suicidal behavior by increasing the sensitivity to psychological pain and the disconnection from self-awareness. Therefore, body image, sensations and awareness as well as psychological pain should be examined to improve the understanding of the dynamic interactions between body, brain, and mind that underly suicidal behavior. This conceptualization brings clinical and therapeutic perspectives in a domain where they are urgently needed.

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Section: Psychological Pain As Core Dimension In Suicidementioning

confidence: 99%

Learning From Artemisia’s Lucretia: Embodied Suffering and Interoception in Suicide

Courtet¹,

Guillaume²

2020

Front. Psychiatry

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“…Meanwhile, the dark side of mortality salience is the ability to take a decision to commit suicide (Braun, Bschor, Franklin, & Baethge, 2016;Humphrey, 2018;Jamison, 1999;Preti, 2007;Soole, Kõlves, & De Leo, 2015;Stoff & Mann, 1997). This uniquely human phenomenon varies in frequency in time and space in different cultures, but also occurs at a baseline rate in all populations, driven in part by major depressive disorder (Angst, Angst, & Stassen, 1999;Jamison, 1999), a common human psychiatric condition often characterized by "depressive realism" (Haaga & Beck, 1995;Moore & Fresco, 2012;Pacini, Muir, & Epstein, 1998), a concept that suggests that mildly depressed individuals are better at perceiving certain (largely negative) aspects of reality.…”

Section: Does Human Psychological Ontogeny Recapitulate the Proposedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Did Human Reality Denial Breach the Evolutionary Psychological Barrier of Mortality Salience? A Theory that Can Explain Unusual Features of the Origin and Fate of Our Species

Varki

2019

Evolutionary Psychology

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Some aspects of human cognition and behavior appear unusual or exaggerated relative to those of other intelligent, warm-blooded, long-lived social species--including certain mammals (cetaceans, elephants, and great apes) and birds (corvids and passerines). One collection of such related features is our remarkable ability for ignoring or denying reality in the face of clear facts, a high capacity for self-deception and false beliefs, overarching optimism bias, and irrational risktaking behavior (herein collectively called "reality denial"). Such traits should be maladaptive for reproductive success when they first appear as consistent features in

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“…From the perspective of evolutionary biology, the act of self-killing is seen as maladaptive [9]. It is an act that can only be realized once humans have gained the necessary cognitive skills to contemplate the implications of no longer existing in the world [9]. No single approach, whether Western philosophy [10,11] or Eastern traditions [12,13], portrays suicide as a simple, straightforward subject even as it is commonly understood as some kind of desire for one's pain, bodily or mental, to stop.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alice in Suicideland: Exploring the Suicidal Ideation Mechanism through the Sense of Connectedness and Help-Seeking Behaviors

Nguyen¹,

Le²,

Nguyen³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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On average, one person dies by suicide every 40 seconds, recent data show. Yet, extant studies have largely focused on the risk factors for suicidal behaviors, not so much on the thought process and the interactions of factors leading up to a suicide attempt. To understand how suicide thoughts arise and persist inside one’s mind, and look for actionable solutions to reduce the risk of suicidal ideation in young adults, the most at-risk group of deaths by suicide. A multifiltering information mechanism called Mindsponge serves as the theoretical basis. Bayesian analysis with the Hamiltonian MCMC technique (Markov Chain Monte Carlo) was run on a dataset of multinational students (N = 268) in an international university in Japan. Item 9 in the PHQ-9 was used to survey suicidal ideation in students. The associations among four main variables, namely (i) suicidal ideation, (ii) help-seeking willingness (informal and formal sources), (iii) social connectedness, and (iv) being an international student, were tested in four models. Social connectedness is negatively associated with suicidal ideation (μ_(ToSC_Suicide) = -0.13 and σ_(ToSC_Suicide) = 0.02), but when the interaction with international students is added, the social connectedness’s effect on suicidal ideation becomes less impactful (μ_(ToSC*Inter_Dom_Suicide) = 0.01 and σ_(ToSC*Inter_Dom_Suicide) = 0.01). Social connectedness on help-seeking behavior among international students is also negative (μ_(ToSC*Inter_Dom_InformalHelp) = -0.01 and σ_(ToSC*Inter_Dom_InformalHelp) = 0.01). Meanwhile, informal help is negatively associated with suicide (μ_(InformalHelp_Suicide) = -0.51 and σ_(InformalHelp_Suicide) = 0.11) whereas formal help is positive (μ_(FormalHelp_Suicide) = 0.08 and σ_(FormalHelp_Suicide) = 0.10). The findings support our assumption on three fundamental conditions for preventing suicidal thoughts: (i) a high degree of belongingness, (ii) accessibility to help-related information, and (iii) healthy perceived cultural responses towards mental health. The implications are clear: to effectively tackle suicidal ideation among students, and broadly in other populations, requires a set of systematically coordinated programs.

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The lure of death: suicide and human evolution

Cited by 32 publications

References 11 publications

Learning From Artemisia’s Lucretia: Embodied Suffering and Interoception in Suicide

Learning From Artemisia’s Lucretia: Embodied Suffering and Interoception in Suicide

Did Human Reality Denial Breach the Evolutionary Psychological Barrier of Mortality Salience? A Theory that Can Explain Unusual Features of the Origin and Fate of Our Species

Alice in Suicideland: Exploring the Suicidal Ideation Mechanism through the Sense of Connectedness and Help-Seeking Behaviors

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