Why Attempt Suicide? Evidence from the Poetry of Suicidal Poets
Hollywood actor Owen Wilson's recent suicide attempt once more raises the question of what leads people to take their own life. Research into suicidal poets provides some clues.
This week it was confirmed that Owen Wilson, the Hollywood actor, attempted suicide. The question 'why?' naturally arises in these circumstances. While people's specific reasons vary greatly, psychologists are, of course, interested in the general factors that lead to suicidal behaviour. Some fascinating evidence about what these general factors are comes from a study on poets, who appear particularly prone to suicide.
The study by Shannon Wiltsey Stirman and James Pennebaker from the University of Pennsylvania, used a text analysis program to examine poetry written over poets' lifetimes (Stirman & Pennebaker, 2001).
They looked at 300 poems written by 20 different poets, half of whom eventually committed suicide. The linguistic features of these poems were then compared with poets who were not suicidal. Suicidal poets whose poetry was analysed included Sylvia Plath and John Berryman. Non-suicidal poets included Robert Lowell and Denise Levertov.
Poems were analysed to look at the specific features of the language to search for evidence for one of two well-known explanatory models of suicide:
- Hopelessness
The more traditional view of suicide is that people enter an extended period of desperation and sadness which leads to a complete breakdown in hope. Once hope is gone, suicide becomes a real possibility.If this theory is correct it suggests poets would tend to use more words about death in their poetry, and more references to negative emotional states like anger and sadness.
- Social disengagement
Another model of suicide is suggested by the eminent French sociologist, Emile Durkheim. Durkheim argued people become suicidal primarily because they become more obsessed with themselves, detached from social relationships and withdrawn from the social world generally.Fame can, in some ways, hasten these processes. Poets and actors, for example, are encouraged to focus on themselves and become more detached from social reality.
If this theory is correct, suicidal poets should use more references to the self and fewer references to communication with others.
Self-centred poetry, sex and death
Analysis of the poems did provide some limited support for the social disengagement theory. Suicidal poets were more likely to use the first-person singular (I, me, my) than non-suicidal poets.
On the other hand, no support was found for the hopelessness theory as suicidal poets were no more likely to use negative emotion words or talk about death than were the non-suicidal poets.
Having tested their original theories, the authors found that suicidal poets seemed more preoccupied with sex than non-suicidal poets. Indeed there was stronger evidence for a focus on sexual matters than on death itself in the suicidal poets.
Limitations
The authors of the study are the first to admit their research is exploratory - the main problem with it being the small sample size. They did also look for changes in language use over the poets' career but didn't find any results that provided support for either theory.
Self-centred
Despite these limitation, this study is very creative. It provides a useful way of investigating the factors relevant to suicide and how these are manifested in text. It also highlights the fact that a preoccupation with the self and withdrawal from social contact may well be central components in suicidal behaviour.
Perhaps this was a factor in what happened to Owen Wilson. It is certainly ironic that the film he pulled out of as a result of his suicide attempt is Tropic Thunder in which he was due to play a narcissistic Hollywood actor.
Reference
Stirman, S. W., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2001). Word use in the poetry of suicidal and nonsuicidal poets. Psychosom Med, 63(4), 517-22. (Full text)
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Another limitation that I can see is that this study was limited to published works by poets who were successful in their field. A study of unpublished works might provide more support for one or both theories. After all, few publishers are going to accept a lot of poems that are only about suicide! Too, it might be beneficial to look into journals, diaries and other private writings for further evidence.
I've been having an interesting debate over at a poetry blog called 'Avoiding the Muse' about this study. Towards the end of the comments section Steven Schroeder makes some good points about this study which I'm reposting here with his permission:
"Jeremy, allow me to ask you this:
-How does the study account for suicidal poets who didn't commit suicide?
-How does the study account for poems written during non-suicidal times by poets who later committed suicide, other than the silly brute-force approach of "early" versus "late"?
-How does the study purport to diagnose the psychology of poets to know they weren't suicidal, especially those with clear personality disorders?
-How did/would the study deal with poets whose deaths were ambiguous suicides (e.g. Jarrell) or potentially suicides by proxy (numerous alcoholism deaths, etc.)?
-How does the study account for the use of "I" etc. in persona poems that have nothing to do with the poet's self and can in fact indicate increased engagement with others?
-How does the study account for the fact that the "I"-based personal lyric is the dominant (mainstream) verse mode of the last 50 years in large part because of the confessional movement, disproportionately represented in the poet suicides by Plath and Sexton?
-How does the study account for John Berryman, who was considered a confessional poet despite not being (or considering himself) the narrator of the Dream Songs?
-Why does the study feel it's acceptable to use living poets in the non-suicide column when that might not end up being true?
I'm sure I could go on...
Overall, this study (or at least the abstract thereof) demonstrates poor understanding of poetry and of being suicidal. The results are largely uninteresting even before you take into account that the design and hypotheses are deeply flawed because their assumptions and selections are so ridiculously broad."
"If [the hopelessness] theory is correct it suggests poets would tend to use more words about death in their poetry, and more references to negative emotional states like anger and sadness."
I don't think that follows. It seems to me that the defining characteristic of hoplessness is a static view of the world, and a rejection of negative emotions being "states" but rather being defining characteristics. It is not "I am happy" vs. "I am sad". It is "I feel sad today" vs. "I *am* sad, and forever and always will be".
Anon, maybe, maybe! But if someone was sad every day, don't you think they'd be more likely to write about that sadness in a poem on more separate occasions?
People with MS have brought new insight to this disorder. It is more of a state of reality. To a severely depressed person, suicide is no more or less rational that putting on one's cloths. Although to the everone else it is illogical. The person is rich or famous. Has no real problems. But brain chemistry and structure play a big role. I think it will one day be linked to a type of auto-immune disease that changes chemistry and sructure.
Just my thoughts...
I have no Gun
and it would be mayhem if I had
so sleep would be just fine
pain when you are prescribed so many drugs and the doctor just knows how you feel
he has a dilemma between pain and depression beause of the pain he prescribes enough to kill you or the pain
he sits there and you see his dilemma
and I wouldnt say my kids dont give a damn they are trying to survive and block excess responsibility as we do, keeping there babies and nucleous family together in hard times
I never expected that they owed me anything That is there for them to live with after but they dont.
sign of the times. No extended family in the UK models we have ignored.
I am alone apparently god is there.but is so hard to find infact he has disapeared.
I believe the end of a poem tells us a whole lot about the poet. All of us can start out having a bad day, but we can’t dwell there forever. The end of a poem should show some sort of hopeful or good outcome; anything less than hopeful and good is evil or despairing. The end of a poem gives us a glimpse of the direction the poet is emotionally heading.
Compare these two poems Invictus & Unconquered(below):
Invictus – this poem was used by Tim McVeigh’s as his final statement.Unconquered – was Kathy Hobaugh's response to Tim McVeigh’s final statement
INVICTUS
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley; 1849-1903
Unconquered
Out of the light that covers me,
Oh, Master of my soul,
Terror strikes on every side,
Yet You are in control.
In the anguish of my circumstance
I humbly bow my head,
Earthly things go up in flames,
But hope is far from dead.
My faith like silver refined by fire,
Is purified through and through;
I love the Lord with all my heart,
And love my neighbor too.
Beyond this place of toil and tears
I’ll stand at heaven’s gate.
Perfect love awaits me there;
He’s the Master of my fate.
Kathy Hobaugh
Suicide or thoughts of suicide are often linked to sadness and hopelessness. I have a slightly different view. Hopelessness could be the product of direct seeing of reality. And that need not be depresing and sad, yet the very fact of seeing hopelessness could vastly reduce several pursuits and thereby shrink one's 'life' footprint. And in extreme cases, stare frequently at the question - why eat at all, when hunger is going to return? or why breathe, and so on. This could lead to suicide as well, or at least to intense suicidal thoughts. Yet, there is no sadness in here. Somehow our lexicon lumps hopelessness with sadness and depression. As a society we are so pumped up on hope that the flip side is loathsome.
Suicide is as normal as hunger and the determination of "why eat?" or "why live" is perhaps happening subliminally all the time, most times the answer is "why not?" and life goes on. Sometimes it does not, which is no big deal.