Suicide notes are not ‘personal’
News travels and over the last months I have received a few articles on suicide notes to review. They all make the same assumption – suicide notes are personal (‘ultrapersonal’ even). As the claim is supported and reinforced by reviewers, it seems, I am again fairly solitary in my view that such claims are implausible. This post contains extracts from genuine suicide notes. Continue reading “Suicide notes are not ‘personal’”
Running into a wall
This post comes from frustration. I’m not entirely certain I should write it, but, hell, I am getting fed up with hitting the brick wall of….medicine. And so, I want to write about what the wall looks like. Continue reading “Running into a wall”
Silencing suicide
Once again I want to revisit the debate on the use of the verb ‘commit’ in reference to suicide. Yes, even though it’s been done over and over again, and I keep being in what seems a minority, I think the issue is important, so, please bear with me. Continue reading “Silencing suicide”
Suicide notes are acts of communication
When I was preparing to write my book on men’s suicide notes, I was struck by how unproblematised suicide notes were. Just about since the first study of suicide notes (by Shneidman and Farberow) suicidology has not been interested in notes as acts of communication. They are seen as not having any communicative functions or goals. Continue reading “Suicide notes are acts of communication”