Suicide by charcoal grill

Just I read in the topical issue of the news magazine DER SPIEGEL (11/2011) something about the newest methodical trend: One gets the charcoal grill from the garden in the house and seals carefully all doors and windows with adhesive-stripes. Supposedly one becomes unconscious first and then glides painless to the other side. Popularity has attained this method at first in Asia, at the beginning of the economic crisis there [1998 – 2006], writes DER SPIEGEL. Hong Kong, Taiwan – I hope profoundly, Japanese towns do not join such statistics …

“The hanging” by evakins!
compare: flickrcomments: my suicide mother

(I’ve written a book review about the SUICIDE topic for amazon.de – in German; now I tried to translate the article:)
The author does not want to glorify the suicide writing a book about people who killed themselves, but he was interested to discover more about the complicated machinery which drives a human being. Causes of suicide, there are very different. If you are more interested in (German) politics, you will like to notice in this glossary names such as Bastian / Kelly, Uwe Barschel, Jürgen Möllemann, Baader / Meinhof / Grams or Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, Hess.

International media stars from Marilyn Monroe to Ernest Hemingway will be discussed as well as the very early generations: Seneca, Cleopatra, Nero, Diogenes. The educated classes for sure are interested to read about Kurt Tucholsky and Stefan Zweig , Vincent van Gogh and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner – or the most famous thinker (and practitioner) of suicide: Jean Amery.

It’s surprising how many contributions the modern popular music scene provides to this sad chapter! Anyone who is familiar: Kurt Cobain, Roy Buchanan, Danny Gatton – or for the older among us: Del Shannon (Runaway), Dalida (On the day when the rain came, Itsi-Bitsi-teenie weenie, yellow poked-up Bikini …).

It is probably the easiest method first, simply to sort alphabetically by the name of the dead. A chronological order, or one that separates by country of birth, would perhaps have to shell out time-and region-specific differences. A sociological sort would probably arrange for the influence of the environment: from Jihad to Kamikaze suicide is there a certain range. Of course, the psychoanalyst would again prefer a different combination.

You see, the issue would give enough cause to make many secondary considerations. Maybe it’s time to lift the taboo in this area, to spread as quickly as possible a broad public knowledge in order to understand the “wheels in the brain of a human being”: Not at least with the aim to assist to change the plans of a suicide motivated before the act – or at least to understand them thereafter …

famous suicide bridge near my German hometown Wuppertal, a bridge, crossing the river Wupper, M%C3%BCngsten_Bridge – Muengstener Bruecke

photo by myself, frizztext
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for to translate the following German part into English
I’ve added an html-code (only google-machine):
translate good German to bad English

Man wolle den Selbstmord nicht glorifizieren, eher habe man das Buch geschrieben aus “Neugier auf das komplizierte Räderwerk, das einen Menschen antreibt.” Ursachen für einen Suizid gibt es sehr unterschiedliche. Wer sich mehr für Politik interessiert, wird sich in diesem Lexikon festlesen bei Namen wie Bastian / Kelly, Uwe Barschel, Jürgen Möllemann, Baader / Meinhof / Grams oder Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, Hess.

Internationale Medienstars von Marilyn Monroe bis Ernest Hemingway werden besprochen wie auch die ganz Altvorderen: Seneca, Kleopatra, Nero, Diogenes. Den Bildungsbürger interessieren sicherlich Kurt Tucholsky und Stefan Zweig, Vincent van Gogh oder Ernst Ludwig Kirchner – oder den berühmtesten Theoretiker (und Praktiker) des Suizids: Jean Amery.

Es ist erstaunlich, wieviel Beitrag die moderne Popmusik-Szene zu diesem traurigen Kapitel liefert! Wer sich darin auskennt: Kurt Cobain, Roy Buchanan, Danny Gatton – oder für die älteren unter uns: Del Shannon (Runaway), Dalida (Am Tag als der Regen kam, Itsi-bitsi-teeni…).

Es ist zunächst wohl die einfachste Methode, schlicht alphabetisch nach den Namen der Toten zu sortieren. Eine chronologische Reihenfolge oder eine, die nach Geburtsland trennt, würde vielleicht Zeit- und regionaltypische Unterschiede herausschälen können. Eine soziologische Sortierung würde vielleicht nach dem Einfluss der Umgebung ordnen: von Kamikaze über Djihad bis zum Sektenselbstmord gibt es da eine gewisse Spannbreite.

Natürlich würden die Psychoanalytiker wiederum eine andere Zusammenstellung vorziehen. Man sieht, das Thema gäbe zu mancherlei weiterführenden Überlegungen genug Anlass. Vielleicht wird es höchste Zeit, die Tabuisierung dieses Bereichs aufzuheben, um schnellstmöglich ein breites öffentliches Wissen um das “Räderwerk im Menschen” zu ermöglichen: Nicht zuletzt mit dem Ziel, jenen zu einem Selbstmord Motivierten vor ihrer Tat beim Sinneswandel helfen zu können – oder sie hernach wenigstens noch zu verstehen …

read my amazon book review at
http://www.amazon.de/review/R1QD13S88T1AHF/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=3896022652&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode

Related Articles

• Suicide prevention training offered (bendbulletin.com)
• How to prevent suicide in physicians (kevinmd.com)
• Mother Accused Of Killing Son With Hibachi Grill (dreamindemon.com)
• Bipolar Disorder and the Risk of Suicide (everydayhealth.com)
• How The Economy Affects Suicide Trends (huffingtonpost.com)
• Purple Heart hero commits suicide (rt.com)

related:

Geoff Quinn reported from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco: “… a high school kid jumping on a dare from the end near to us (but on the other side of the roadway) and surviving, picked up by surfers in the water…”
P.S.:
my friend Geoff commented to the topic bridge-jumpers:
They say that a second after you jump you say, “actually my problems are not so bad…”
frizz-feedback: but for some of us, there was a point of no return …

http://twitter.com/#!/frizztext/status/77065280815251456

About Didi van Frits

writer, photographer, guitarist, painter

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