Too Many Suicides

The surprised recent suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain triggered memories in my past. In the early 1970s, Gail, a beautiful redhead, was the love of my life. She was bright, talented and full of life’s energy. I met her in San Francisco, while separated from my wife. We had a terrific love affair that resulted in her moving to Detroit while I was in graduate school completing my PhD. Unfortunately, we separated, and I did not see her for about 25 years. Surprisingly, I met her at my 40th high school reunion. She had married a classmate of mine. However, she was unhappy in that union. Within the next five years or so, I found out that she had committed suicide. In the late 1970s, I feel in love with another woman that I met in San Francisco at the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute. Jackie, at that time, was working on her PhD and also had a volunteer position with Suicide Prevention of Alameda County. One might argue, that these two facts were coincidences. Maybe or maybe not. In any event, Bourdain’s suicide brings back pleasant memories along with sadness regarding Gail. I would’ve liked to been there with her in her last moments. A few thoughts regarding suicide. Aggression is part of man’s nature and frustration leads to aggression. Even though there is a drive for survival, man, not only kills others, but kills self. We do not find any hard data generalizing or duplicating that behavior with the animal world. In the recent mass shootings, the perpetrator becomes the victim of suicide, either killing self, being killed by others, or spending the rest of his life behind bars. Overall, roughly 2/3 of all suicides are by men; and with a greater percentage being between the ages of 15 and 30 or over 70 years of age. There’s been close to a 30% increase in suicides since 1999 and it has been reported that about 70% of individuals committing suicide have communicated with others prior to taking their own life. Further, in 2016 suicide was the 10th most leading b cause of death. For the population at large, mental disorders, including personality disorders alcoholism, substance misuse coupled with feeling alone; being not afraid to die, are associated with intentionally causing one’s own death. To Be Continued