History of Suicide: Voluntary Death in Western Culture

by Georges Minois, Lydia G. Cochrane (Translator)

Overview

Selected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title

In this compact and illuminating history, Georges Minois examines how a culture's attitudes about suicide reflect its larger beliefs and values—attitudes toward life and death, duty and honor, pain and pleasure. Minois begins his survey with classical Greece and Rome, where suicide was acceptable—even heroic—under some circumstances. With the rise of Christianity, however, suicide was unequivocally condemned as self-murder and an insult to God. With the Renaissance and its renewed interest in classical culture, suicide reemerged as a philosophical issue. Minois finds examples of changing attitudes in key Renaissance texts by Bacon, Montaigne, Sidney, Donne, and Shakespeare.

By 1700, the term suicide had replaced self-murder and the subject began to interest the emerging scientific disciplines. Minois follows the ongoing evaluation of suicide through the Enlightenment and the Romantic periods, and he examines attitudes that emerge in nineteenth- and twentieth-century science, law, philosophy, and literature. Minois concludes with comments on the most recent turn in this long and complex history—the emotional debate over euthanasia, assisted suicide, and the right to die.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801866470
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	04/17/2001
Series:	Medicine and Culture
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.83(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Lydia G. Cochrane has translated three previous books for Johns Hopkins: On the Edge of the Cliff by Roger Chartier (1996), The Color of Melancholy by Jacqueline Cerquiglini-Toulet (1997), and History of Suicide by Georges Minois (1999). Her other translations include Alain Boureau's The Lord's First Night (1998) and The Myth of Pope Joan (2001), and Renzo Dubbini's Geography of the Gaze (2002).

Table of Contents

Introduction
Part I. Tradition: A Repressed Question
Chapter 1. Suicide in the Middle Ages: Nuances
Chapter 2. The Legacy of the Middle Ages: Between Madness and Despair
Chapter 3. The Classical Heritage: Perfecting the Timely Exit
Part II. The Renaissance: A Question Raised, Then Stifled
Chapter 4. The Early Renaissance: Rediscovery of the Enigma of Suicide
Chapter 5. To Be or Not To Be: The First Crisis of Conscience in Europe
Chapter 6. The Seventeenth Century: Reaction and Repression
Chapter 7. Substitutes for Suicide in the Seventeenth Century
Part III. The Enlightenment: Suicide Updated and Guilt-Free
Chapter 8. The Birth of the English Malady, 1680-1720
Chapter 9. The Debate on Suicide in the Enlightenment: From Morality to Medicine
Chapter 10. The Elite: From Philosophical Suicide to Romantic Suicide
Chapter 11. The Common People: The Persistence of Ordinary Suicide
Epilogue. From the French Revolution to the Twentieth Century, or, From Free Debate to Silence

What People are Saying About This

Thomas Lynch

A comprehensive and intriguing study of the grim commingling of resolve and mystery that has characterized the act of and reaction to suicide since the Roman Empire gave way to the Middle Ages in Europe . . . Balanced, engaging and sufficiently detailed with dark truths to keep the extramural reader interested.

From the Publisher

A comprehensive and intriguing study of the grim commingling of resolve and mystery that has characterized the act of and reaction to suicide since the Roman Empire gave way to the Middle Ages in Europe . . . Balanced, engaging and sufficiently detailed with dark truths to keep the extramural reader interested.
—Thomas Lynch, author of The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade, in The Washington Times

Editorial Reviews

This book, lucidly translated, makes compulsive reading.
—Roy Porter, The Times of London

Minois's book follows the religious, philosophical, literary, and judicial debate for and against self-murder from antiquity to the end of the Enlightenment, demonstrating the close connection between political power, religious authority, social status, and the freedom to die . . . Minois's study is detailed and thorough . . . Gory anecdotes and effective reference to overarching intellectual trends make the book edifying and morbidly enjoyable.
—Kirkus Reviews

Minois . . . has provided a timely chronicle tracing the evolution of societal attitudes toward suicide . . . Minois writes in an unadorned, concise prose that aids him in treating a serious subject in a serious manner. Although his own convictions on the issue are clear, Minois treats both sides of our current debate with objectivity, understanding, and compassion.
—Booklist

The History of suicide has come of age. After a century of sociological inquiry, historians over the last decade have now embraced this all-too-human act and have produced remarkable results.
—D. J. A. Matthew, American Historical Review

Minois has succeeded in pulling together a wide range of materials, and in reminding us how elite attitudes to suicide shifted, and that those shifts may well serve as pointers to some more general developments in the intellectual history of Europe.
—J. A. Sharpe, Journal of Early Modern History

A broad and thought-provoking discussion of the complexities of suicide. Continually reminding us that the legalities and theoretical discussions of suicide often do not coincide with the reality of suicide, Minois focuses his discussion around Hamlet's famous question, 'to be or not to be,' and this proves to be an effective way to organize and present the large and dense amount of material . . . This book provides a useful and impressive collection of data and an absorbing discussion of attitudes toward voluntary death.
—Elise P. Garrison, Religious Studies Review

From the Publisher

"Minois... has provided a timely chronicle tracing the evolution of societal attitudes toward suicide... Minois writes in an unadorned, concise prose that aids him in treating a serious subject in a serious manner. Although his own convictions on the issue are clear, Minois treats both sides of our current debate with objectivity, understanding, and compassion."

Booklist

A broad and thought-provoking discussion of the complexities of suicide. Continually reminding us that the legalities and theoretical discussions of suicide often do not coincide with the reality of suicide, Minois focuses his discussion around Hamlet's famous question, 'to be or not to be,' and this proves to be an effective way to organize and present the large and dense amount of material... This book provides a useful and impressive collection of data and an absorbing discussion of attitudes toward voluntary death.

— Elise P. Garrison

Religious Studies Review

Minois has succeeded in pulling together a wide range of materials, and in reminding us how elite attitudes to suicide shifted, and that those shifts may well serve as pointers to some more general developments in the intellectual history of Europe.

— J. A. Sharpe

Journal of Early Modern History

The History of suicide has come of age. After a century of sociological inquiry, historians over the last decade have now embraced this all-too-human act and have produced remarkable results.

— D. J. A. Matthew

American Historical Review

This book, lucidly translated, makes compulsive reading.

— Roy Porter

The Times of London

This book, lucidly translated, makes compulsive reading.
— The Times (London)

Roger Porter

One would think, from its title, that History of Suicide was a comprehensive survey, but, unfortunately, the imprint of a university press is, these days, no assurance of probity. The book does not even live up to its subtitle, being concerned almost entirely with the Christian population of France and England from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment.
— Literary Review Magazine

Rhoda Koenig

This book, lucidly translated, makes compulsive reading. —Times

Roy Porter

A comprehensive and intriguing study of the grim commingling of resolve and mystery that has characterized the act of and reaction to suicide since the Roman Empire gave way to the Middle Ages in Europe . . . Balanced, engaging and sufficiently detailed with dark truths to keep the extramural reader interested. —Washington Times

Thomas Lynch

An historic panorama and an anthropological reflection on suicide in the West.

Le Figaro

Places the ambivalence about suicide into larger cultural beliefs and values such as life and death, duty and honor, and pain and pleasure. Drawing from theology, law, literature, science, and medicine, explores such questions as under what circumstances suicide has been honored or condemned and increases or decreases, on what if any grounds can it be justified, whether legislation or religion makes any difference, and whether the historical record discloses or obscures suicide. First published as t<'e> occidentale face <`a> la mort volontaire/> by Libraire Arth<`e>me Fayard in 1995. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

Minois's book follows the religious, philosophical, literary, and judicial debate for and against self-murder from antiquity to the end of the Enlightenment, demonstrating the close connection between political power, religious authority, social status, and the freedom to die. Minois, an independent scholar and author of 14 books, begins with the change in public attitudes toward suicide in Rome, in the face of military exigencies and a barbarian onslaught. The Epicurean ideal of the "perfect exit" was rejected by a state desperate to increase the number of taxpayers and soldiers at its disposal. Suicide was punished by confiscation of the deceased's estate and destruction of the corpse. After the rise of Christendom, church leaders incorporated prohibitions on suicide into religious doctrine, in part through the philosophical translation of Thomas Aquinas. Medieval law followed suit, prescribing torture, hanging, public display, and ignominious disposal of the corpses of suicides. Not until the advent of scientific inquiry in the Renaissance were these rules challenged, but by then there was a double standard: commoners who hanged or drowned themselves were punished, while nobles who took their own lives with cold steel or pistols escaped "justice" through insanity rulings and purposely botched investigations. Most interesting is the link between power and suicide; whenever the political and religious establishment experienced weakening authority, official opposition to suicide increased. The Reformation, Enlightenment, and French Revolution all saw intensified propaganda against self-murder. The conclusion is clear, as is Minois's sympathy: suicide is the last refuge of thefree man. Death, after all, is not only a land of no return, it is the line delimiting the power of state and church. Minois's study is detailed and thorough, though he rarely leaves France and England for examples. It may be too thorough for the casual reader, but gory anecdotes and effective reference to overarching intellectual trends make the book edifying and morbidly enjoyable.

Kirkus Reviews

The History of suicide has come of age. After a century of sociological inquiry, historians over the last decade have now embraced this all-too-human act and have produced remarkable results.

American Historical Review - D. J. A. Matthew

Minois has succeeded in pulling together a wide range of materials, and in reminding us how elite attitudes to suicide shifted, and that those shifts may well serve as pointers to some more general developments in the intellectual history of Europe.

Journal of Early Modern History - J. A. Sharpe

A broad and thought-provoking discussion of the complexities of suicide. Continually reminding us that the legalities and theoretical discussions of suicide often do not coincide with the reality of suicide, Minois focuses his discussion around Hamlet's famous question, 'to be or not to be,' and this proves to be an effective way to organize and present the large and dense amount of material . . . This book provides a useful and impressive collection of data and an absorbing discussion of attitudes toward voluntary death.

Religious Studies Review - Elise P. Garrison

Minois . . . has provided a timely chronicle tracing the evolution of societal attitudes toward suicide . . . Minois writes in an unadorned, concise prose that aids him in treating a serious subject in a serious manner. Although his own convictions on the issue are clear, Minois treats both sides of our current debate with objectivity, understanding, and compassion.

Booklist

This book, lucidly translated, makes compulsive reading.

The Times of London - Roy Porter