Suicide and Culture 2.0

Integrating the role of culture is critical in preventing suicide!

• Written by leading suicide researchers
• Explores suicide in different cultural contexts
• Highlights how to conduct culturally sensitive studies

The increasing domination of individual approaches in suicide research and prevention, at the expense of socio-cultural factors, is severely harming our ability to prevent people dying by suicide. This is the clearly set out arguments and evidence in this lucid book by leading social scientists and suicide researchers.

In the first section, the authors review and examine the fundamental issues of why “culture” is of vital importance in understanding and preventing suicidal behavior, what the “cultural meaning” of suicide is, and where current research and theory are leading us. This section ends with a thought-provoking perspective of suicide as a staged performance impacted by the suicide's culture.

The second section then presents the results of a mixed-methods cross-cultural study on the cultural meanings of suicide in three contexts: Australian, Indian, and Italian. There follows an essay on a culturally specific form of suicide (sati in India), and a discussion of suicide among Roma and Irish Travellers. A further chapter describes a community-based suicide prevention strategy that has been developed for different populations, including people from migrant and refugee backgrounds and from low-and-middle-income Asian countries.

In the concluding section, the authors highlight both the necessity and the challenges of conducting good culturally sensitive and meaningful studies, as well as suggesting ways to address these challenges. This book volume is essential reading for anyone involved in suicide research and prevention.