Suicide Note - Wikipedia

Message left by a person intending to die "Suicide Note" redirects here. For the song by Pantera, see Suicide Note (song). "Suicide letter" redirects here. For the letter sent by the FBI to Martin Luther King Jr., see FBI–King letter.

A suicide note or death note is a message written by a person who intends to die by suicide, often intended to be read afterwards.

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.[1] 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

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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:[2]

• 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 offense.[3][4][5]

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

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• Death poem – Genre of poetry
• Deathbed confession – Confession made by someone nearing death
• Last words – Final words attributed to a person before their death
• Will and testament – Legal declaration where a person distributes property at death

References

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1. ^ SHIOIRI, TOSHIKI; NISHIMURA, AKIYOSHI; AKAZAWA, KOHEI; ABE, RYO; NUSHIDA, HIDEYUKI; UENO, YASUHIRO; KOJIKA-MARUYAMA, MAKI; SOMEYA, TOSHIYUKI (April 2005). "Incidence of note-leaving remains constant despite increasing suicide rates". Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences. 59 (2): 226–228. doi:10.1111/j.1440-1819.2005.01364.x. PMID 15823174. S2CID 28986718.
2. ^ Olson, Lenora (2005). The Use of Suicide Notes as an Aid for Understanding Motive in Completed Suicides (Thesis). University of Utah.
3. ^ "Suicide note reveals murder confession". London: bbc.co.uk. 1971-07-14. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
4. ^ "Man jailed for murder in lay-by". London: bbc.co.uk. 2008-03-01. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
5. ^ "Suicide note found in murder-suicide case". cbc.ca. 2000-06-23. Archived from the original on December 19, 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-28.

External links

[edit] Wikiquote has quotations related to Suicide notes. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Suicide notes.

• The Presentation of the Self in Suicide Notes by David Lester & Bijou Yang

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