Reflections of a committed suicidologist
pp. 13-30
in: Maurizio Pompili (ed), Phenomenology of suicide, Berlin, Springer, 2018Abstract
This paper was developed with the aim of shedding light on the phenomenology of suicide, that is, to focus on suicide as a phenomenon affecting a unique individual with unique motives for the suicidal act. Phenomenology studies conscious experience as experienced from the subjective or first-person point of view. To explore this topic, the author looks back at the past centuries to understand why suicide was thought to be confined to psychiatric illness and to document the bias in studies supporting this notion. One major step forward in the conceptualization of suicide as a psychological disorder was provided by Edwin Shneidman. This essay goes over clues in the phenomenology of suicide.