Suicide Case

According to the text suicide ranks as the eighth cause of death among adults in America but second among college age, or adolescent, members of society (p. 144). If the act of suicide is so common then why is it associated with such emotions as shame, condemnation, and cowardice? Something that is apparently so common surely should not be clouded in any aspect of disillusioned and superstitious emotions. Clearly, some people are choosing to die in our great American individualistic society. If we as Americans value independence then we as Americans should deeply respect those members of our society who choose to end their life. These postulates and others accompanied the goal of social education regarding suicidal contemplation in the text.

Shame, this emotion can be used to say a person becomes hot with it as they experience something painful. It is a feeling of humiliation or distress. In this circumstances surrounding suicide it is caused by the consciousness perception of wrong or foolish behavior. Psychology would suggest that the motivation to end your on life is steeped in the grievous sense of hopelessness related with depression. Sociologists might tend toward the opinion that individuals who commit suicide are themselves feeling the shame for roles abandoned or not achieved, so the root cause was really the failure of society not the mind. Neither of these interpretations can be proven to be absolutely correct in answering the question of particularly why shame is so strongly associated with suicide; therefore, to understand why Americans associate suicide with shame a further link can be proposed.

To deeply examine the root of suicide and shame one only needs to examine the very first documents this nation was created upon. Indivisible under God, America is so steeped in religious ideation regarding the blessing and the special condition that is one human life, it is interpreted as an offense to the society to behave in an alternative manner suggesting otherwise. There; is the personal act of suicide being interpreted by the public. Shame, the emotion and stigma can be now washed over the surviving family with pseudo-justified logic. The family must also be partially to blame as they housed a person so unlike the rest of the God fearing public so shame extends to the survivors. The emotions now can turn to something darker and without a doubt based upon fear, condemnation.

Realistically speaking, it is fair to assume that most people world-wide regardless of religious position do not wish to see those who they care for pass away or be otherwise harmed by their own hand. Americans and the standard Christian ties to the preservation of life not withstanding; the expression of public disapproval rains down upon the survivor. In essence now the survivor of suicide is being punished a third time for the singular successful suicide act of an individual.

Then there is the opposite experience expressing condemnation as well when the individual who commits suicide clearly blames one party as the source of misery (p. 146). There is the real actions to condemn by the individual committing the act, the society perceiving the act after the event, and immediate group of members who knew the victim first hand. All of these three categories to some degree can experience condemnation.

Faced with shame and condemnation it is possible to experience cowardice for any of those associated with suicide. The sense that it is impossible to go on neatly ties in conversationally with the inability to face continued daily challenges. At an early age I recall being told of a boy from a nearby town that had committed suicide. He "must not have been strong enough" my friend said. The bit of a friends' speech is imbedded into the ideology that one must be brave to face the daily drudges of living life in a first world nation.

Largely due to the sense the act had been stereotyped and over simplified with time the surrounding community examined personal issues the boy must have had. The search to find a direct reason for the action of suicide was desperate in the community. Suicide is not a rare event as the text reports; yet the community searched in futility for a reason to place the cowardly act of suicide upon the boy who could no longer defend himself.

The family of the boy in the previous personal example was targeted with suspicions of inner family abuse and neglect. The boy himself was spoken of in a series of progressively character damaging rumors suggesting he had no grasp on reality. Comforted with the conclusion that the act was due to surreal feelings created