A reader revives the debate over whether killing yourself is selfish: I don’t really understand it. I guess people are motivated by loyalty or empathy to stick up for the deceased. But if we try to think of any reasonable definition of selfishness, say “putting one’s own needs and desires before those of everyone else,” we have to … Continue reading Suicide Leaves Behind Nothing, Ctd
The long-running thread gets another story: I just read the psychotherapist’s take on the selfishness of suicide and would like to chime in with my own experience. My daughter was 16, and we had been going through several years of wildly uncontrolled behavior on her part. I came home one evening to find she had taken an … Continue reading Suicide Leaves Behind Nothing, Ctd
A reader merges the Leelah Alcorn thread with another popular one: You’re no doubt unsurprised that I disagree with your reader who characterized Leelah’s suicide as “the worst and most selfish way to get satisfaction.” I can imagine far worse and more selfish ways of receiving satisfaction over grievances. In fact, I don’t have to imagine them, … Continue reading Suicide Leaves Behind Nothing, Ctd
by Dish Staff A few more readers share their stories: A close friend – also a funny, intelligent, well-liked guy – killed himself four years ago. One of his (and my) best friends said at his memorial: Bob was one of the smartest people I ever met. He never did anything without thinking all the … Continue reading Suicide Leaves Behind Nothing, Ctd
by Dish Staff The thread on Robin Williams’ death morphs into our long-running thread on suicide: Elizabeth Nolan Brown’s post reminded me of the thoughtful and informative comic on depression by Hyperbole and a Half. It’s in two parts – One and Two. I just re-read it all, and making it a little more heartbreaking this week is that the movie she is looking … Continue reading Suicide Leaves Behind Nothing, Ctd
A reader writes: I’ve been reading the suicide thread and I just don’t understand how suicide is selfish. When torture victims break, we don’t call them selfish. People can be tortured by their brain’s messed-up chemistry as brutally as they can be tortured with stress positions and sensory deprivation. People break. That’s not a character … Continue reading Suicide Leaves Behind Nothing, Ctd
A reader writes: Thanks for the discussion thread. But as a daughter who endured her father’s suicide when I was 12, I get upset when people like your readers say the act is selfish. My dad suffered from mental illness and depression, and if hanging himself from a bridge brought him relief, I can understand. … Continue reading Suicide Leaves Behind Nothing, Ctd
Jul 17, 2013 @ 8:57am “Suicide, seen as among the most selfish of acts, pushes a button in us that even murder doesn’t,” according to Clancy Martin: When I was in treatment for depression, I found that meeting and talking to other people about suicide was profoundly helpful; I saw what a loss it would have … Continue reading Suicide Leaves Behind Nothing
A reader writes: I want to echo what your reader said about his connections tethering him to the world. I absolutely share the sentiment. I have an objectively great life, full of privilege, but I feel as if I’m always carrying around a massive dark truth about reality. At some point in my early 20s, … Continue reading Suicide Leaves Behind Nothing, Ctd
A reader responds to this post: I can go through periods when I think that life isn’t worth living. But I don’t have the will to enact a suicide. For when I think of those in my life who would be affected, it makes those thoughts moot. Life is sometimes not worth living for myself, … Continue reading Suicide Leaves Behind Nothing, Ctd
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