Why Are Suicides So Widespread in Catholic Lithuania?

Abstract

Religion as a protective factor against suicide was introduced in Durkheim's theory of suicide and analysed from various perspectives in multiple studies. The Lithuanian case is intriguing because before WWII, along with Catholic Poland, it showed much lower suicide rates than its Protestant neighbours Latvia and Estonia. However, today Lithuania is among the leading countries in terms of the prevalence of suicide. Interestingly, not much has changed in Lithuania in terms of religious denomination-about 80% of population call themselves Catholic. The aim of this article was to explore which factors might have affected religions' protective function against suicide during radical historical processes. The method of study consists of an analysis of historical sources, and of recent studies in suicidology and sociology of religion about suicide and religion in Lithuania. The results of this analysis show that two factors seem to be most important-heroicizing resistance suicides and experiencing long-term politics of atheisation.

When culture fails: coping with cultural trauma

“…The Soviet regime had a strong impact on the society. Representative population studies have found that half of all Lithuanian residents indicate having politically repressed people in their family (Gailienė 2015a(Gailienė , 2015bKazlauskas & Zelviene 2017). Everyone was forced to accommodate to the totalitarian regimes.…”

“…Often families lived in a peculiar atmosphere where, for political reasons, the parents would hide their past from their children in order to protect them from possible repression. Some only learned about their family history as adults and when the country had become independent again; some knew or suspected, but experienced constant insecurity and anxiety (Gailienė 2008;Vaskelienė 2012).…”

“…As the processes of democratization began in the Soviet Union, a great many Lithuanian people transported the remains of their loved ones from the distant locations where they had been deported, or employed various symbolic forms of grieving (commemorative hills, symbolic graves, family crosses, etc.) with the hope of finalizing their interrupted goodbyes (Gailienė 2008).…”

“…For instance, after WWII, the public and political decisions taken in the Western countries were beneficial to the research into long-term, deep traumatization that had already begun, and based on them, the compensation system for people who had suffered under the Nazi regime was created and developed (Weisaeth 2004). However, trauma research indicates that the stages of acknowledgment and forgetting recur interchangeably (Herman 1992;Shephard 2014;Gailienė 2001;Weisaeth 2004). The reasons for the denial of trauma are emotional, social, and political (Gailienė 2008).…”

“…However, trauma research indicates that the stages of acknowledgment and forgetting recur interchangeably (Herman 1992;Shephard 2014;Gailienė 2001;Weisaeth 2004). The reasons for the denial of trauma are emotional, social, and political (Gailienė 2008). It is not yet readily acknowledged in the European cultural discourse that the experience of the communist regime has been traumatic (Assmann 2013).…”