suicide note
{{Short description|Message left by a person intending to die}}
{{redirect|Suicide Note|the song by Pantera|Suicide Note (song)}}
{{redirect|Suicide letter|the letter sent by the FBI to Martin Luther King Jr.|FBI–King letter}}
File:Lettre de Dalida.png's suicide note]]
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A suicide note or death note is a message written by a person who intends to die by suicide.
A study examining Japanese suicide notes estimated that 25–30% of suicides are accompanied by a note. However, incidence rates may depend on ethnicity and cultural differences, and may reach rates as high as 50% in certain demographics.{{cite journal |last1=SHIOIRI |first1=TOSHIKI |last2=NISHIMURA |first2=AKIYOSHI |last3=AKAZAWA |first3=KOHEI |last4=ABE |first4=RYO |last5=NUSHIDA |first5=HIDEYUKI |last6=UENO |first6=YASUHIRO |last7=KOJIKA-MARUYAMA |first7=MAKI |last8=SOMEYA |first8=TOSHIYUKI |title=Incidence of note-leaving remains constant despite increasing suicide rates |journal=Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences |date=April 2005 |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=226–228 |doi=10.1111/j.1440-1819.2005.01364.x |pmid=15823174 |s2cid=28986718|doi-access=free}} A suicide message can be in any form or medium, but the most common methods are by a written note, an audio message, or a video.
Reasons
Some fields of study, such as sociology, psychiatry and graphology, have investigated the reasons why people who complete or attempt suicide leave a note.
The most common reasons that people contemplating suicide choose to write a suicide note include one or more of the following:{{Cite thesis |last=Olson |first=Lenora |title=The Use of Suicide Notes as an Aid for Understanding Motive in Completed Suicides |publisher=University of Utah |year=2005}}
- To ease the pain of those known to the victim by attempting to dissipate guilt.
- To increase the pain of survivors by attempting to create guilt.
- To set out the reason(s) for suicide.
- To send a message to the world.
- To express thoughts and feelings that the person felt unable to express in life.
- To give instructions for disposal of the remains.
- Occasionally, to confess acts of murder or some other offence.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/14/newsid_2503000/2503395.stm |title=Suicide note reveals murder confession |publisher=bbc.co.uk |access-date=2008-10-28 |date=1971-07-14 |location=London}}{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lincolnshire/4762774.stm |title=Man jailed for murder in lay-by |date=2008-03-01 |publisher=bbc.co.uk |access-date=2008-10-28 |location=London}}{{cite news |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/suicide-note-found-in-murder-suicide-case-1.234301 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219225157/http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2000/06/23/note000623.html |url-status=live |archive-date=December 19, 2008 |title=Suicide note found in murder-suicide case |date=2000-06-23 |publisher=cbc.ca |access-date=2008-10-28}}
Sometimes there is also a message in the case of murder–suicide, explaining the reason(s) for the murder(s); see, for example, Marc Lépine's suicide statement and videotaped statements of the 7 July 2005 London bombers.
See also
{{Portal|Writing}}
- {{annotated link|Death poem}}
- {{Anl|Deathbed confession}}
- {{annotated link|Last words}}
- {{annotated link|Will and testament}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Wikiquote|Suicide notes}}
{{Commons category|Suicide notes}}
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=rtwGCgAAQBAJ&dq=presentation+david+lester+bijou+yang&pg=PT16 The Presentation of the Self in Suicide Notes] by David Lester & Bijou Yang
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