Gender, Culture, and Suicidal Behavior

Abstract

Cultural concepts of gender and suicidal behavior are revealed in language and theory. They organize the way stories of suicidal behaviors are narrated, determine which events are highlighted, and the conclusions to be drawn about precipitants and motives. In contemporary western, English-language suicidology, suicidal women and suicidal men are assumed to be opposites in terms of rates, types, methods, precipitants, and motives of suicidal behavior. Women are said to 'attempt,' and men to be 'successful' at suicide. On the one hand, suicidal behavior in women is viewed as an ambivalent, emotional, weak act precipitated by private relationship problems. For example, this kind of conceptualization is dominant in biographies of the suicidal poet Sylvia Plath. Suicidal behavior in men, on the other hand, is construed as a decisive, calculated, strong response to impersonal adversities. We found an example of this kind of narrative in a psychological analysis of the suicide of executive Jake Horton. These gendered images and narratives of suicidal behavior have become so entrenched as to be taken for universal truths. Our review of the evidence, however, shows that while these conceptualizations may apply to some women and men in western, English-language countries, they are neither universally valid nor historically constant. We found examples of communities where patterns and meanings of gender and suicidal behavior do not conform with trends in western, English-language countries. What is constant across cultures and historical times is a correlation between cultural narratives and epidemiology. Women and men tend to draw upon the suicide scenarios popular for them in their culture, scenarios which become self-fulfilling prophecies. At the same time, even within cultures, suicide cases often involve a more complex plot than suggested by cultural scripts. The implications of these observations for suicide prevention are discussed.