An Essay on Loss of Self versus Escape from Self in Suicide Essays

An Essay on Loss of Self versus Escape from Self in Suicide Essays Suicidology Online 2013; 4:16-20. ISSN 2078-5488 16 Essay An Essay on Loss of Self versus Escape from Self in Suicide: Illustrative Cases from Diaries left by those who died by Suicide David Lester The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, USA Submitted to SOL: 16th August 2012; accepted: 24th December 2013; published: 11th April 2013 Abstract: Michael Chandler (1994) has described how suicide can result from a loss of a sense of self, while Roy Baumeister (1990) has described how suicide can be an attempt to escape from the self. Their published theories are presented in a very abstract manner, and the present essay presents examples from two individuals who died by suicide who expressed these themes in their diaries. Loss of a sense of self is illustrated by the diary of an 18-year-old, and escape from self is illustrated by the diary of a professor, both of whom died by suicide. Keywords: Loss of Self, Suicide, Case Study Copyrights belong to the Author(s). Suicidology Online (SOL) is a peer-reviewed open-access journal publishing under the Creative Commons Licence 3.0. * IIIt is difficult to understand why individuals take their own life. There are risk factors and warning signs, but none of these appear to be necessary or sufficient conditions for suicide to occur. In an effort to understand suicide rather than explain it, I have been fortunate to obtain the diaries of individuals who have died by suicide. For example, in one case, I recruited colleagues to read the diary of a young woman who died by suicide and to present their insights gained from the diary (Lester, 2004). I have found that diaries provide a rich source of * David Lester, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Psychology The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey Galloway, NJ 08205-9441 USA Tel: +1 609-652-4254 Email: [emailprotected] information about the person that goes far beyond the brief suicide notes that some leave. The present essay was stimulated by two competing ideas, namely that suicide can result from a loss of self or as an escape from the self, and I realized that two of the diaries in my possession illustrated these two themes. The articles (by Michael Chandler [1994] and by Roy Baumeister [1990]) describing these two themes present the ideas in a very abstract manner, and the reader is left wondering how the themes manifest themselves in suicidal people. The following cases provide concrete examples of these abstract ideas. Loss of Self In a series of essays, Chandler has proposed that suicide, especially in adolescents, can occur as a result of the loss of self (Chandler, 1994; Ball & Suicidology Online 2013; 4:16-20. ISSN 2078-5488 17 Chandler, 1989; Chandler & Proulx, 2006). At the most abstract level, Chandler noted that, when selforganizing systems try to restructure themselves, typically as an upgrade to a higher and more differentiated level or organization, there can be a system failure. The individuals find themselves bereft of their previous construction of their self as persistent and continuous through time. They lose ownership of their past and any commitment to their own future. At that point, self-destructive behavior loses personal significance and becomes more available as a solution to current problems. If one is stripped of a persistent sense of identity, then one has no investment in ones future well-being. Chandler noted two tasks involved in achieving a stable sense to selfhood. First, from a cross-sectional perspective, one task is to understanding how the different competing facets of oneself that are often in conflict, are part of a unified self. Second, the sequential dimension requires that one view the current self as a development of previous selves so that one has a sense of continuity over time. Chandler described five possibilities: 1. For the pre-adolescent, the self is viewed as a figural collection of mosaic of parts, and change is discounted. The events in one life are seen as isolated, and the person turns a blind eye to change. 2. For the 12-16 year-old, the self is viewed a multifaceted topologic structure, and change is denied. There may be a good side and a bad side to the individual, or a shy side and a more forward side, but any conflict here is denied. 3. Later, the person adopts the view that there is an essential unchanging core to the self, and change is trivialized or finessed. However, this core self may be viewed as unknowable and comes to be treated as a kind of indwelling spirit or ghost in the machine (p. 382). 4. Then, functional and narrative strategies stitch together the multiple episodes of ones life (p. 382). In this functional strategy, the individual realizes that earlier events caused the present state. In the narrative strategy, the person rereads and re-edits the past in the light