Subject: Re: suicide
From: Robbie (shok@netcom.com)
Date: Sun Feb 27 2000 - 23:48:16 EST
Jim said:
<< First, because the neurosis is undefined, and next, because there
are "reasoned" reasons for doing so -- reasons reflective of a value
system, a belief system, or a personal set of values >>
I have a hard time believing that any person in a normal state of mind
can end their own life. "Reasoned" reasons be damned. Certainly there
can be reasons for suicide -- reasons reflective of a value system, a
belief system, or a personal set of values -- but these reasons must
work the person into a sort of psychotic frenzy before the act itself
becomes possible.
<< The problem I have with eliminating cowardice as a motive for
**anyone's** suicide is that it assumes that the fear of death is the
worst fear a person can have. I don't think that's the case. I think
each of us work within a heirarchy of fears, as well as a heirarchy of
values, and we work to protect ourselves from our worst fears. Suppose
the fear of death is only second place? Suppose we confront our worst
fear, and choose suicide to avoid that confrontation? At this point
cowardice as a motive for suicide become plausible. >>
Oof. You can say it and re-say it however you like, but my point
remains that "cowardice" is just a very, very bad word to use in that
context. The word "coward" is an insult, and calling cowardice a motive
for suicide is not entirely unlike calling stupidity a motive for
suicide.
Perhaps it is possible for dying to somehow become easier than living,
for a life to be thought of as not worth living anymore, for a person to
seek an escape from the world through any means necessary. And then if
these motives are intense enough, perhaps they can alter the brain's
normal mechanisms severely enough to make suicide possible. But I
cannot help but feel that calling _ANY_ suicide an act of cowardice is
well into the realm of thoughtless absurdity.
-robbie
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