Social injury: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the attitudes towards suicide of lay persons in Ghana.

Abstract

One way of furthering our understanding of suicidal behaviour is to examine people's attitudes towards it and how they conceive the act. The aim of this study was to understand how lay persons conceive the impact of suicide on others and how that influences their attitudes towards suicide; and discuss the implications for suicide prevention in Ghana. This is a qualitative study, using a semi-structured interview guide to investigate the attitudes and views of 27 lay persons from urban and rural settings in Ghana. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyse the data. Findings showed that the perceived breach of interrelatedness between people due to suicidal behaviour influenced the informants’ view of suicide as representing a social injury. Such view of suicide influenced the negative attitudes the informants expressed towards the act. The negative attitudes towards suicide in Ghana are cast in consequential terms. Thus, suicide is an immoral act because it socially affects others negatively. The sense of community within the African ethos and The Moral Causal Ontology for Suffering are theoretical postulations that are used to offer some explanations of the findings in this study.

• Social injury
• attitudes
• lay persons
• suicide
• Ghana

Notes

1. Atofowu literally refers to sudden violent and intentional death considered as bad death (De Witte, 2001; Warren, 1986).

2. We are aware of the different views on the nature of the relationship between person and community in Africa by scholars such as Menkiti (1984), Mbiti (1989), and Gyekye (1997). Gyekye (1997) contended that the views of Mbiti and Menkiti on this issue reflect radical communalism that erases personal freedom and choice. He saw such a view as overstated and misleading. Instead, he recommended that such a relationship be viewed moderately; what he referred to as moderate communitarianism. He, however, consented to the reality of the sense of community in African societies. It is within the nexus of this general consensus of sense of community within African societies that we discuss our findings.