The Will to Die

The man who commits suicide has to turn his back on the church, the law and his own strongest instinct, self-preservation. Yet in an average year, 22,000* people in the U.S. kill themselves; 100,000 more try and fail. Why? According to a survey circulated last week, a large percentage of them are mentally unbalanced, and presumably incapable of making sound moral judgments.

For the survey, reported in the magazine Diseases of the Nervous System, three members of the Chicago Psychiatric Institute made an intensive study of 100 people who lived after trying to kill themselves. Of the 100 cases, 40 were sent to mental hospitals, another 26 needed psychiatric care.

All but four of the would-be suicides were willing to give "reasons." The largest number, 36, blamed "sweetheart trouble." But the researchers noted dryly that "frustrated lovers as a rule do not use effectual methods of suicide." The next largest number, 20, blamed alcohol. Other explanations listed: delusions, 9; family trouble, 7; neurotic complaints, 7; a feeling of "impending disaster," 6; a desire to show off, 6; shame for something they had done, 3; poor housing, 1; "just depressed," 1.

But the conscious "reasons" and explanations, the researchers think, are superficial and misleading. The real cause, brought out by psychiatric study, is more likely to be "a deep sense of guilt with an unquestionable penchant for self-punishment." Frequently an attempt at suicide is a symptom of some serious personality disorder. Young people, they found, are more likely than older ones to stage fake suicide attempts for dramatic effect.

Is there any way to prevent suicide? The researchers made no recommendations, but they threw out some hints. Close family ties help; married people try suicide less often than the single, widowed or divorced; the divorced have the highest rate of all. Strong religious ties also help; there is comparatively little suicide among Catholics and Jews. Wars in general decrease suicide because they bring prosperity, make it easier for people to have "a sense of belonging."

*More than the total deaths from typhoid fever, measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough, diphtheria and intestinal infections.

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