Comments on: Jukai – the suicide stigma

By: tribalscientist

tribalscientist — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 07:48:50 +0000

One day I’m going to take a year off from everything and just read every book I have on my list of ‘must reads’. But I’ll definitely add this one to it. Thanks Karla.

By: Karla McLaren

Karla McLaren — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 07:06:11 +0000

Hi Michael. I was a researcher on a book about the sociological definitions of murder (killing is not always labeled as murder, and the book looks at why that is). In part of my research, I focused on post-war homicide rates, and found interesting correlations with suicide. I fact, some researchers classify homicide and suicide together as lethal violence, and there are measurable connections between the two.

Here’s one of the best books on the subject (Currents of Lethal Violence), which questions the “mentally ill individual” model of suicide. Nicely done. Social science rocks: http://bit.ly/at3Mxk

By: tribalscientist

tribalscientist — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 23:11:07 +0000

That’s an interesting question. From my perspective, it’s a question of how variation relates to the environment. We can only call a difference in neurology ‘bad’ in relation to the environment it’s in.

Hikikomori is fascinating not so much from a neurological perspective, but from a sociocultural one. In the west we might just say a person suffers form agoraphobia, but the relationship between that label and the cultural context of it is (as you probably know) subtly different to hikikomori within Japanese culture. The question of whether a person with the neurological variation that gives rise to hikikomori would be described as agoraphobic in a western social setting is an interesting one, however. I’d suspect so, but again, the subtle interplay of biophysical variation and cultural qualities makes it a complex (if no less amazing) field to study.

By: Penny

Penny — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 03:07:20 +0000

Fantastic post – do you know if anyone in the anthropological community has addressed this in more depth?

Japan itself is also a very rich culture to delve into anthropologically. If we’re talking about illnesses of the collective, where would hikikomori fit in? Is this sort of chosen social isolation only a symptom of modern culture, or can, as you say, it merely be associated with a brain that has been “badly wired” and therefore occur at any point in human history, in any sociocultural setting? (If you know more about this also, I’d love to be pointed in the right direction.)

Looking forward to reading more of your work.