1st Edition

The Idea of Suicide Contagion, Imitation, and Cultural Diffusion

By Michael J. Kral Copyright 2019
    144 Pages
    by Routledge

    144 Pages
    by Routledge

    Continue Shopping

    This book is about a new theory of suicide as cultural mimesis, or as an idea that is internalized from culture. Written as part of a new, critical focus in suicidology, this volume moves away from the dominant, strictly scientific understanding of suicide as the result of a mental disorder, and towards positioning suicide as an anthropologically salient, community-driven phenomenon. Written by a leading researcher in the field, this volume presents a conception of suicide as culturally scripted, and it demonstrates how suicide becomes a cultural idiom of distress that for some can become a normative option.

    Preface



    Chapter One: Introduction: Human Imitation as Culture





    Chapter Two: On Suicide





    Chapter Three: Social Epidemics





    Chapter Four: Culture and Suicide





    Chapter Five: Cultural Mimesis in Suicide: A Return to Diffusion and Gabriel Tarde





    Chapter Six: Afterword

    Biography

    Michael J. Kral is an associate professor in the School of Social Work at Wayne State University, USA.