The Relationship of Social Behavior with Suicidal Ideation

(A Textual Analysis of ‘Waking up Alive’ by Richard A. Heckler)

  • Muntazar Mehdi
  • Farwa Rauf
Keywords: Mental Illness, Suicide, Abuse, Trauma, Social Behavior, Waking up Alive

Abstract

Abstract:

This study highlights the social forces that galvanize and accelerate the risk for suicidal behaviors among social individuals. Suicidal behavior has traditionally been considered as a product of mental illness. In other words, a one-dimensional construct, with passive ideation, and active intent. The researchers conducted the textual analysis of non -fiction stories of 50 suicide attempts. The aim of this study is to assess the relationship between suicidal ideation and social behavior. The analysis shows that the external catastrophic events shape and reshape the memories and identities, which in turn, constitute internalized trauma. Hence, it is concluded that such traumatic experiences of these individuals affect their identities and memories, leading to the psychological states of thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensome resulting in desire for suicide and death. Hence, suicide can be deemed as a response to social behaviors like abuse, violence, and being an outcast.

References

. Nock, Matthew K., Guilherme Borges, Evelyn J. Bromet, Christine B. Cha, Ronald C. Kessler, and Sing Lee. "Suicide and suicidal behavior." Epidemiologic reviews 30, no. 1 (2008): 133-154.

. Joiner, Thomas E. "Why people die by suicide." (Harvard University Press) 2005.

. Heckler, Richard A. Waking up, alive: the descent, the suicide attempt, and the return to life. Author & Company, 2014.

. Caruth, Cathy. Trauma: explorations in memory. Johns Hopkins (Univ. Press, 1995), 03.

. Heidarizadeh, Negin. "The significant role of trauma in literature and psychoanalysis." Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 192 (2015): 788-795.

. Ibid.

. World Health Organization https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/suicide 2016: Retrieved on 30-04-2021

. Värnik, Peeter. "Suicide in the World." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 9, no. 3 (2012): 760-771.

. Rachman, Stanley. "Human fears: A three systems analysis." Cognitive Behaviour Therapy 7, no. 4 (1978): 237-245.

. Liu, Richard T., and Ivan Miller. "Life events and suicidal ideation and behavior: a systematic review." Clinical psychology review 34, no. 3 (2014): 181-192.

. Shneidman, Edwin S. Suicide as psychache: a clinical approach to self-destructive behavior. Jason Aronson, 1993.

. Schneidman, Edwin S. "Perspectives on suicidology: Further reflections on suicide and psychache." Suicide and life-threatening behavior 28, no. 3 (1998): 245.

. Baumeister, Roy F. "Suicide as escape from self." Psychological review 97, no. 1 (1990): 90.

. Ibid.

. Hendin, Herbert. Suicide in America. W.W. Norton, 1996.

. Heckler, Waking up, alive: the descent, the suicide attempt, and the return to life. 2014.

. Grant, Verne. "The origin of adaptations." The origin of adaptations. (1963).

. Harrison, Dominique P., Werner GK Stritzke, Jason YS Leong, T. Mark Ellison, Nicolas Fay, and Abdul-Rahman Hudaib. "The implicit suicidal mind clings to life." In Alternatives to suicide, pp. 17-44. Academic Press, 2020)

. Ibid. 38.

. Smith, Kim, and Sylvia Crawford. "Suicidal behavior among “normal” high school students." Suicide and Life‐Threatening Behavior 16, no. 3 (1986): 313-325.

. Ibid. 317.

. Hirschberger, Gilad. "Collective trauma and the social construction of meaning." Frontiers in psychology 9 (2018): 1441.

. Opperman, Kiel, Ewa K. Czyz, Polly Y. Gipson, and Cheryl A. King. "Connectedness and perceived burdensomeness among adolescents at elevated suicide risk: An examination of the interpersonal theory of suicidal behavior." Archives of Suicide Research 19, no. 3 (2015): 385-400.

. Joiner, Thomas E. "Why people die by suicide." (Harvard University Press) 2005.

. Cvetkovich, Ann. An archive of feelings. Duke University Press, 2003.

. Hungerford, Amy. The Holocaust of texts: Genocide, literature, and personification. University of Chicago Press, 2003.

. Mandel, Naomi. Against the Unspeakable: Complicity, the Holocaust, and Slavery in America. University of Virginia Press, 2006.

. Balaev, Vladislav, Ivan Orlov, Alexey Petrushevsky, and Olga Martynova. "Functional connectivity between salience, default mode and frontoparietal networks in post-stroke depression." Journal of affective disorders 227 (2018): 554-562.

. Joiner, Thomas E. "Why people die by suicide." (Harvard University Press 2005) 136.

. Ibid.

. Joiner, Thomas E., and Kimberly A. Van Orden. "The Interpersonal–Psychological Theory of Suicidal Behavior Indicates Specific and Crucial Psychotherapeutic Targets." International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, 2008: 80-89.

. Heckler, Waking up, alive: the descent, the suicide attempt, and the return to life, 2014: 37.

. Ibid.

. Ibid. 40.

. Ibid. 41; 53.

. Ibid; 43.

. Ibid.

. Ibid. 51.

. Joiner, Thomas E. "Why people die by suicide." (Harvard University Press) 2005: 51.

. Ibid. 52.

. Heckler, Waking up, alive: the descent, the suicide attempt, and the return to life. 2014: 52.

. Ibid. 85.

. Ibid. 66.

. Ibid. 67

. Joiner, Thomas E. "Why people die by suicide." (Harvard University Press) 2005: 111.

. Heckler, Waking up, alive: the descent, the suicide attempt, and the return to life. 2014: 91.

. Ibid. 74.

. Joiner, Thomas E. "Why people die by suicide." (Harvard University Press) 2005: 109.

. Heckler, Waking up, alive: the descent, the suicide attempt, and the return to life. 2014: 74.

. Ibid. 81.

. Ibid. 60.

. Ibid. 101.

. Ibid. 65.

. Ibid. 83.

. Ibid. 84.

. Ibid. 89.

Published
2021-07-20