The theorisation of suicide : an exploratory study

This thesis is a conceptual exploration of a number of issues relevant to the theorisation of suicide. Five research questions are addressed. 1. How should suicide be defined? It is argued that intentionality is central to an understanding of suicide. Suicide is defined as ending one's own life intentionally. 2. Why is there a proliferation of theories of suicide? Three main sources are identified - the complexity of suicide, the existence of different disciplines, and the significance of different basic theoretical perspectives. 3. Should this theoretical pluralism be accepted as normal or should theoretical uni£ication be the goal? Theoretical uni£ication is rejected because it denies the complexity of suicide, treating it as an undifferentiated domain, and imposes one theoretical perspective at the expense of others. 4. How are studies of the various explanatory factors of suicide shaped by different disciplinary concerns and the assumptions made by different theoretical perspectives? Different disciplinary approaches have focussed on the operation of different factors, and theoretical perspectives within each discipline offer different understandings of the meaning of such factors.The theorisation of suicide must resist the fragmentation of disciplines, theoretical perspectives, and various reductionisms in order to understand suicide as a holistic phenomenon existing at a number of ontological levels. 5. Is it possible to develop an integrated overall theory of suicide? Different explanations are required for different types of suicide, human behaviour is not law­ governed, and psychological and social reality consists of open systems. For these reasons, a global theory of suicide is only able to consist of a highly generalised account of the range of distal and proximal factors potentially relevant to the range of types of suicide. Work by Shneidman (1985) and Maris, Berman and Maltsberger (1992) o££er a basis for such a global theory