The Social Production of Psychocentric Knowledge in Suicidology

ABSTRACT

Suicidology, the scientific study of suicide and suicide prevention, constructs suicide as primarily a question of individual mental health. Despite recent engagement with suicide from a broader public health perspective, and efforts of critical suicide studies scholars and activists to widen the disciplinary and theoretical base of suicidology, the narrow focus on individual pathology and deficit in conceptualising suicide persists. In this article, I consider the ways in which this ‘psychocentric’ knowledge of suicide is produced and organised, offer reasons why this to be problematic, and outline other available forms of knowledge production. This knowledge production is psychopolitical rather than psychocentric and emphasises much more the contexts (political, economic, social, cultural and historical) within which suicide occurs. Psychopolitical analysis aims to better understand the complex social and political contexts of such deaths, and, ultimately, seeks to open up collective and political possibilities for action which are denied when suicide is conceptualised solely as an issue of individual mental health.

KEYWORDS:

• Psychocentric knowledge
• suicide prevention
• psycho-politics
• critical suicide studies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. It could also be argued that the article contains, despite an apparent morally neutral medical science vocabulary, unequally applied moral standards in relation to examples of self-sacrifice – for example, ‘parents who provide for their children despite not being able to sufficiently care for themselves; charitable institutions, such as hospitals, medical clinics, and schools; military recruits who volunteer to defend their nation; and firefighters and law enforcement officers’ are seen as morally neutral or praiseworthy in their actions, but self-sacrifice ‘represents a tragic, flawed, and sometimes fatal miscalculation (i.e., a derangement) among modern humans when made and acted upon in the context of suicide’ (Joiner et al. 2016, 243).

2. ‘In eusocial insects, the self-sacrificial tendency is under total genetic control and is entirely a product of kin selection … It should be acknowledged that, in addition to genetic factors, self-sacrifice in humans is shaped by nongenetic factors as well (e.g., religion, culture)’ (Joiner et al. 2016, 244).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ian Marsh

Ian Marsh is Reader at Canterbury Christ Church University. He is the Suicide-Safer Universities project lead, and academic lead for the Kent and Medway Suicide Prevention Group. Ian is the author of Suicide: Foucault, History and Truth (Cambridge University Press, 2010) and co-editor of Critical Suicidology: Toward Creative Alternatives (UBC Press, 2016).