Why do so few humans kill themselves?
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Why do so few humans kill themselves?
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Re: Why do so few humans kill themselves?
#2The relationship between depression and suicide with age is just correlation not causation, so it's silly to draw a line there and assume they are connected -- especially since we know depressed people have a higher suicide rate than people without depression.
I think this post is an attempt to make an obvious question seem like it has deep or non-obvious answers; but in reality I think the answers are pretty obvious. Most people don't kill themselves because they don't want to. It's that simple. It's like asking "Why don't more humans become ballet dancers?" Some try and fail but most just don't want to.
If the question is really; why don't more people want to kill themselves, then the answer is going to vary person by person and be difficult if not impossible to answer globally. Bob might not have any thoughts of suicide at all but Alice might think about it but want to see her nephew grow up and not inflict that pain on her parents.
Truly answering that question would involve a really comprehensive study of a lot of different groups to even attempt to answer it.
Re: Why do so few humans kill themselves?
#3The relevant question is "Why so many humans kill themselves?". Because asking the other way around implies suicide is natural, which is a ratter extraordinary claim.
Re: Why do so few humans kill themselves?
#4How is this such a difficult question. Suicide is an inherently evolutionary bad idea and is eliminated from the gene pool by obvious means. Are there even any documented incidents of aberrational suicide in any other species?
Re: Why do so few humans kill themselves?
#5The relevant question is "Why so many humans kill themselves?". Because asking the other way around implies suicide is natural, which is a ratter extraordinary claim.
The article approaches it from the perspective of "what preventative measures does the human body and mind use against suicide." In this context "so few" is probably the right wording, given a 98.6% reduction compared to no prevention (according to the numbers from the article).
Re: Why do so few humans kill themselves?
#6The relevant question is "Why so many humans kill themselves?". Because asking the other way around implies suicide is natural, which is a ratter extraordinary claim.
Perhaps. But it is also pedagogically valuable to ask "Why don't more people commit suicide?" We might learn something about the mental defence mechanism the brain employs.
Re: Why do so few humans kill themselves?
#7Probably has something to do with the theory of natural selection.
Re: Why do so few humans kill themselves?
#8The relationship between depression and suicide with age is just correlation not causation, so it's silly to draw a line there and assume they are connected -- especially since we know depressed people have a higher suicide rate than people without depression. I think this post is an attempt to make an obvious question seem like it has deep or non-obvious answers; but in reality I think the answers are pretty obvious…
The paper does not draw a causation, nor does the article. The paper asks a question, and the article tries to think along the lines of the question and asks some more.
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> I think the answers are pretty obvious. Most people don't kill themselves because they don't want to.
That is a simple conclusion, indeed; and it's not wrong either. The article tries to reason how that conclusion came to be. People who have had suicidal thoughts but didn't go through with it did ultimately not want to do it, but before that decision they did want to, by definition of 'suicidal people'.
The article – inspired by the paper – opens with the premise that 'pain' and 'human cognition' alone should make a human want to 'give up' upon the slightest inconvenience, and then goes on to try and come up with other factors — like your Alice wanting to see her nephew grow up or not wanting to inflict pain on her parents — that prevent 'pain and brain' from having their way uncontested.
Re: Why do so few humans kill themselves?
#9The relationship between depression and suicide with age is just correlation not causation, so it's silly to draw a line there and assume they are connected -- especially since we know depressed people have a higher suicide rate than people without depression. I think this post is an attempt to make an obvious question seem like it has deep or non-obvious answers; but in reality I think the answers are pretty obvious…
I think your comment has blurred some distinctions that the post takes care to pull apart. Every human inevitably suffers and has reason to commit suicide, so why don't they all want to? Many more people want to commit suicide than do commit suicide, so why is that?
The reasons that you posited for Alice not killing herself were among many mentioned in the post.
Re: Why do so few humans kill themselves?
#10The relevant question is "Why so many humans kill themselves?". Because asking the other way around implies suicide is natural, which is a ratter extraordinary claim.
The question as posed is an interesting one, as it sits on the boundary of where the "lizard brain" and executive thought process meet. The instinct to survive is very strong, even when the rational brain thinks (rightly or wrongly) that it's a hopeless situation.
Understanding how and why people cross that line may be a way to identify people at risk and intervene.