A suicide note or death note is a message left behind by a person who dies or intends to die by
suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...
.
A study examining Japanese suicide notes estimated that 25–30% of suicides are accompanied by a note. However, incidence rates may depend on ethnicity and cultural differences, and may reach rates as high as 50% in certain demographics. A suicide message can be in any form or medium, but the most common methods are by a written note, an audio message, or a video.
Reasons
Some fields of study, such as
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
,
psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry.
Initial p ...
and
graphology
Graphology is the analysis of handwriting with attempt to determine someone's personality traits. No scientific evidence exists to support graphology, and it is generally considered a pseudoscience or scientifically questionable practice. How ...
, have investigated the reasons why people who complete or attempt suicide leave a note.
The most common reasons that people contemplating suicide choose to write a suicide note include one or more of the following:
*To ease the pain of those known to the victim by attempting to dissipate guilt.
*To increase the pain of survivors by attempting to create guilt.
*To set out the reason(s) for suicide.
*To send a message to the world.
*To express thoughts and feelings that the person felt
unable to express in life.
*To give instructions for disposal of the remains.
*Occasionally, to confess acts of murder or some other offence.
Sometimes there is also a message in the case of
murder-suicide, explaining the reason(s) for the murder(s), see for example,
Marc Lépine's suicide statement and
videotaped statements of the 7 July 2005 London bombers.
See also
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*
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References
External links
A collection of suicide notes and letters''The Presentation of the Self in Suicide Notes''
by David Lester & Bijou Yang
{{DEFAULTSORT:Suicide Note
Letters (message)
Note
Death
Symptoms and signs of mental disorders