Language guarantees an expression of people’s perceptions through semantic content and emotions. Semantic frame theory 19 indicates that the meaning attributed by people to a given concept can be reconstructed by observing the relationships and conceptual associations attributed to that concept in text or speech. Words in a given semantic frame elicit different combinations of emotions, i.e. emotional profiles, which characterize the emotional content of a text.

Revealing semantic and emotional structure of suicide notes Revealing semantic and emotional structure of suicide notes

In many circumstances, the only difference between a completed suicide and a suicide attempt is slightly greater pressure applied to a trigger. In either case the importance of gaining a greater understanding of the psychological conditions surrounding such a tragic event is immediately apparent; what leads an individual to contemplate, and perhaps commit, such an act? Similarly, what sorts of thoughts and feelings does one encounter when experiencing suicidal ideation? And how might our understanding of these phenomena aid in improving prevention efforts? Although these are challenging questions, suicide notes represent one potential window into the psychology of individuals who complete suicide 1, 2. By analyzing the language and contents of suicide notes, we can gain unique insight into shared features of individual experiences and perhaps a greater understanding of the cognitive processes that accompany suicidal ideation 3. Durkheim presents four varieties of suicide –these all being due to imbalances in a person’s moral or social integration – but the point is that what, to all intents and purposes, looks like the supreme act of individualism is in fact strongly influenced by socially explicable causes. So that, if one were to take the case of the Jews, you might think that a group that was greatly loathed within Europe at the time would have much more reason to commit suicide in greater numbers than those around them who were relatively better liked. That this didn’t prove to be the case was explicable by Durkheim on the basis that Jews protected themselves by forming very strong intra-group bonds – that is, they look out for each other and make sure everyone feels they are looked after and valued. People look out for each other and are looked after in turn. In other cases people had clear roles in life and therefore were much less likely to end their lives, as such an act would abandon that ‘needed’ role within their community. Essentially, when we feel we have a larger role than merely ourselves, we are less likely to want to kill ourselves. Despite all of the protestations of free-market types, we are social animals and happiest within social groups. Anomic suicide. The mechanism behind this is a bit subtle. Men differs from animals in terms that his needs is not only physical, but beyond that. Animals could be satisfied with the filling of their void, but men are left with an increasing abyss over the course of history. As it is part of our nature, the legislature regarding the limit of our desire cannot be depended on the individual; it would be unlimited if this is the case. Being unlimited, it would again and again would surpass the means available, which would inevitably produce morbid effects. How can one reconcile the void between his Faustian needs and the means he can acquire? This contradiction would give raise to a state of perplexity. As Durkheim pointed out, one cannot advance when one walks toward no goal, or toward infinity. One is then trapped in the limbo of Zeno paradox; there is no real motion, except real torment. Thus, it is clear to us our desires and wants must be limited. But as it is a priori unlimited for the individual, there must be an external regulative principle. Going in I expected reading Durkheim in the 21rst century to be a purely historic endeavour, examining up close the beginnings of the social sciences but not really learning anything. And there's a large chunk of the book that's like that, including uncomfortable sections about "lower races" and the natural inclinations of women. But there's also a lot in here that spoke to questions I'd been considering later, about the intersection of the individual and society and the difficulty of trying to balance the two. Durkheim's thesis is that suicide occurs when there isn't a proper balance between these two elements, and the individual is either entirely cut off from society or completely absorbed by it. What's interesting is that the idea of suicide he debunks -- as a form of individual madness unconnected with social pressures -- is still the prevalent one today. I think this shows how the rise of psychiatry, for all the good its done, has created an idea of individualism that ultimately steers people away from questioning society or even being aware of it. People usually speculates that suicide would be at its peak in the darker and colder season that will surely sparked melancholia; but the total reverse actually happened. Suicide peaks at the most brightest and mildest season; people actually choose the season with least difficulty to die. The closest data in supporting the seasonal data, would be the pattern that as the day lengthens, the rate of suicides increase greatly. What would explain this pattern? And this is also reinforced by the fact that 3/5 of the suicide happened in daytime, and peaked at the strongest heat; which is a time of maximum social interactions.If there are two negative words, we assume the link is still negative given that the conceptual association is bridging ideas perceived as negative and thus creating additional tension;

Suicide Note by Mitchell Heisman | Goodreads Suicide Note by Mitchell Heisman | Goodreads

The same goes for suicides due to imitation - nowadays this type of suicide has changed somewhat. Thus, especially devoted fans of self-killer celebrities commit suicide in the same way, Kurt Cobain is the perfect example. The first type Durkheim mentions is ‘egoistic suicide’. This type of suicide is due to the individualization of society. As collectivism decreased (in which personal identity doesn’t exist) and the ‘religion of the individual’ started to spread, the focus of people turned onto themselves. Certain groups of people, like artists and intellectuals, have such developed intellects, that their minds are almost completely cut off from the social world. In ultimo, these people only have an ‘ego’ and no social relations. This group of people is heavily susceptible to suicide due to melancholy and nihilistic feelings. There is only one really serious philosophical problem,” Camus says, “and that is suicide. Deciding whether or not life is worth living is to answer the fundamental question in philosophy. All other questions follow from that” Notice that our ultimate goal is to identify mental and conceptual associations which are on average most typical for suicide notes. Hence, we do not take a sociological perspective focused on evolution of collective narrative strategies in connection with other social processes 30, 31. Instead, we aim at identifying cognitive patterns which are common across different individuals who committed suicide. Using free associations as linguistic benchmarks for text analysis

Sentiments of suicide note-writers

Having spent 40 hours inside a bunker with his newly wedded wife, Eva Braun, Hitler realized that there was no escape from the Red Army. He had also come to know of the fall of his friend, Benito Mussolini and how he was cut into pieces and thrown into the gutter by the Italian Partisans. This book might be a little bit outdated, but most of the facts still conformed with the current data my psychiatry handbook in med school. Emile Durkheim was one of the first sociologist who incorporated statistical data in their studies, so it was perhaps a paradigm shift from a purely theoretical field to a robust analytic one. While thinking of society as an organism is a flawed analogy, it also offers us a new pair of glasses through which to view our own society and observe new phenomena. Ultimately, I am a sceptic when it comes to societies existing as entities and following certain laws or paths (whether cyclical, ascending or descending). But after reading Durkheim’s Suicide – not to mention his prior two works – I can more fully grasp the meaning in which people like Spengler thought about societies and their developmental paths. I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to stay long enough to graduate and get a job. I'm sorry that I'm leaving you. I hope in the next life I will have a better childhood, parents, and friends. I hope it's better than this life I hope it's not as sad as this life. I'm so sorry that I couldn't match up and fit your expectations for you. I'm sorry for not being enough for you and not being the greatest at everything. I'm tired, tired of all of this. You shouldn't be sad that I'm gonna be leaving the world's overpopulation anyway and I won't matter there and the worlds gonna die and end either way. I wish I got the help I needed. I wish I was able to open up and be able to cry. I wish I was able to feel something but now I'm empty and can't feel anything like I'm avoiding. I wish I made a better decision in making friends. I wish I was able to talk to someone. I know life isn't fair and that it's shitty and not everything will go to plan so I hope you can understand me for leaving it might take a while so I'm sorry your gonna have to go through this. I'm sorry for the pain I'm gonna put you through. It's my fault your gonna be sad now. Please don't be sad that I'll be gone. Be happy for me because this is what I want. Let me go and be free from this endless depressing cycle I have.” In the present study, we follow the above interpretations by extending the meaning of “balance” to encompass properties of affective organization within the context of signed networks built from conceptual associations. As such we refer to this extended interpretation as emotional balance. Specifically, we study how co-occurrence relationships and valences (sentiments) of words in suicide notes can provide information about possible psychological tensions, distress and emotional disturbances 41 within narrative structures. To yield positive and negative links between words, we adopt the following reasoning:

Suicide Notes | Psychology Today Suicide Notes | Psychology Today

Teens in a psych ward populate a novel that overcomes a predictable beginning to make a powerful emotional impact. Regaining consciousness after an aborted suicide attempt, the 15-year-old narrator thinks his parents have “overreacted” by placing him in a 45-day program in the “nuthouse” (“you know, where they keep the people who have sixteen imaginary friends living in their heads”). Readers might need patience as Jeff, the protagonist, goes through a period of denial, delivering sarcastic answers to his shrink, Dr. Katzrupus (Jeff refers to him as “Cat Poop”) and holding himself aloof from the four other patients. But as Jeff begins to form relationships with these teens, Ford's ( Alec Baldwin Doesn't Love Me Durkheim suggests suicide is a constituent of society that cannot be eradicated, but when reduced, leads to a rise in homicide. And so, I decided to drop it. Maybe someone who is far more politically inclined in the modern sense of first-worldly inclinations might find this book valuable as a supporting or antagonising tool, but for me, this book is a hard pass.Jeff’s journey is wittily unique, balancing a fresh voice and a uniquely realistic character with comedy and seriousness.”— KLIATT And we took those notes and we shuffled them all up, and then we asked about 60 mental health professionals to tell us which ones were real and which ones were simulated. And mental health professionals were good as a flip of a coin, about 50 percent of the time. Now, that's a hard task, don't get me wrong. Not associated with disgust with the service: rate of suicide actually increases with years of service. If the former is the case: the trend should be maximal in the first few years and tapered down after that.

Suicide: A Study in Sociology by Émile Durkheim | Goodreads Suicide: A Study in Sociology by Émile Durkheim | Goodreads

CONAN: And is there any distinction between the language that adolescents use and the language that adults use? stars. This is a very difficult work to review. There's a lot of good here, but there's also a lot of bad. I'll start with the good. There has been criticism of some of the conclusions drawn in this work – but as a case study it really does have the power to make you gasp in wonder. The incredible amount of work this book required, the thought that has gone into ensuring the data was able to be compared, and the effort in thinking through possible objections to the conclusions drawn from the data is really quite stunning. Always the compassionate listener and masterful ethnographer, Terry Williams courageously takes on teenage suicide, one of the nation's most vexing and tragic subjects. He understands the problem as a father, mentor, teacher, and friend of victims and their families. May the voices of despairing teenagers whom Terry has presented here be heard throughout the nation. William Kornblum, Doctoral Program in Sociology, Graduate Center, City University of New York Teenage Suicide Notes is a remarkable book that in turns is powerful, poignant, and profoundly disturbing, as it places in focus the fragmented inner lives of young people living in alienated desperation at the very edge of existence, just before they end their lives. Suicide Notes allows us to witness aspects of their struggle, while encouraging our understanding. Elijah Anderson, author of Code of the Street and The Cosmopolitan Canopy, William K. Lanman, Jr. Professor of Sociology at Yale University PESTIAN: Machine learning is - would be the, you know, the top of the tree and natural language processing would be one of the methods under the machine learning. There's multiple - there's all kinds of tools in machine learning but NLP is one of them.

The discipline of suicidology

The concept of incredibly long winded suicide note seems novel but Leopardi (with Zibaldone) and (arguably) Nekojiru (with Nekojiru So) did the whole getting in bed with death thing much more organically without the forced pseudo sterility that spews from all pores of collection of disorganized ideas. (Along with many others who touched individual and whole subjects of the book much better.) Dr. John Pestian leads the research team. He's a pediatrician and director of computational medicine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, and joins us now from member station WGCU in Cincinnati. [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: The NPR member station in Cincinnati was misidentified. It is WGUC.] And good of you to join us today on TALK OF THE NATION.