I spent a week once with Alfred Alvarez. I learned of his friendship with poet Sylvia Plath which lasted until her now-famous suicide in February of 1963. I also learned of his own personal, lifelong struggle with melancholy and his failed attempt at suicide in 1960. Alvarez’s knowledge of literature, poetry, and philosophy was outstanding even when considered against other leading academics and public intellectuals – and his mastery of language as close to perfect as I have ever read. Why would a man like this be preoccupied with suicide?.I’ve never actually met Alvarez, though. I merely accepted an invitation to peek into his life when I randomly purchased a dog-eared copy of The Savage God: A Study of Suicide on sale in a perfectly shabby used bookstore for $1.75 – less than the price of a cup of coffee.. 220px-Al_AlvarezAlfred Alvarez (5 August 1929 – 23 September 2019) was an English poet, novelist, essayist and critic (Photo credit: Wikipedia) .The tragic news Monday of a suicide in front of the Alberta Legislature made me think of this book and the time I spent reading its dense pages..Most of us don’t know how to react to this news and instead wait for instructions from people who claim a superior understanding as to what an appropriate response should look like. We react to social media posts about the story with the “crying face” emoji and try hard not to comment in a way that might be deemed in bad taste before all the news is out – and, even then, we will thread lightly. Our caution is not out of respect for the family of the suicide – although that’s what we’ll say – but out of fear of saying something that treats the topic of suicide incorrectly or insensitively..In The Savage God, Alvarez writes that most attempts to understand suicide are informed by two prejudices: “the first is that high religious tone which dismisses suicide in horror as a moral crime or sickness beyond discussion” and “the second is the current scientific fashion, which, in the very process of treating suicide as a topic for serious research, manages to deny it all serious meaning by reducing despair to the boniest statistics.”.The Savage God is not your typical study of suicide. The book focuses primarily on the treatment of suicide in literature and its prevalence among the literati. “If art has no power to do evil, then it has no power to do good either,” wrote Joyce Carol Oates in her review of the book..I don’t know if Alvarez’s general treatment of suicide holds up well against current research and theory, but he wrote this book in 1971 and was witness to the transition in public thinking about suicide from religious concern with sin and salvation to a clinical treatment of the matter that deprives both the casual reader and scholar of any real insight into the human and social conditions that can influence self-murder..Suicide is, of course, complex. That’s not only true but also something we must say before offering an opinion on the matter to signal our willingness to be corrected and scolded. For the family and friends the suicide left behind Monday, there may never be answers — but this does not mean we should not look for answers as to the general causes of suicide or attempt to understand the normative or sociological theories underpinning the topic. And in looking for answers, my instincts are almost always to look backward at the intellectual literature and not forward, as I see little evidence of serious thinking among intellectuals today – as evidenced by modern attempts to dismiss suicide as merely an expression of personal autonomy..Emile Durkheim, the 19th century founder of social science as an academic discipline, believed there are three major categories of suicide: egoistic, altruistic and anomic..Loosely explained, an egoistic suicide is one in which the suicide has little attachment to society and feels alone and abandoned. The altruistic suicide is one in which the suicide has too much attachment to society or, more specifically, to the frustrated ambitions of his or her in-group within society. And, the anomic suicide, of primary interest here, is one in which suicide is “the result of a change in a man’s social position so sudden that he is unable to cope with his new situation,” according to Alvarez’s reading of Durkheim’s seminal work Suicide..I know nothing of the reasons the man who committed suicide in front of the Alberta legislature might have had for taking his own life – but if we take Durkheim’s theory of anomic suicide seriously, we can understand why too many Albertans have one foot on the terra firma and another in the firmament..In September of this year, a research report by University of Calgary professor Ron Kneebone makes the connection between Alberta’s economic hardships and rising suicides rates in the province. A grim calculation in the report Suicide and the Economy shows that a “one percentage point increase in the unemployment rate increases the suicide rate by a statistically significant 2.8 percent.” This translates into approximately 17 additional suicides in Alberta each year for every one percent increase in the unemployment rate..This is not a political statement on the tragic event Monday afternoon in Edmonton — or at least it’s not intended to be one. It’s the hard and honest truth about at-risk Albertans struggling to adjust to the changing economic situation in the province, whether they are unemployed oil patch workers or public sector employees uncertain about the future..And if you think I’m incorrect in any of this or that I’m being insensitive, my response is this: It’s complex, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look for answers. The very public suicide Monday should not be exploited now, or even later as facts unfold, to advance a particular political narrative — but it should provoke a more serious discussion of a taboo subject..If you are feeling suicidal contact Crisis Services Canada (tel: 1-833-456-4566 or text 45645), Centre for Suicide Prevention (tel: 1-833-456-4566) or Kids Help Phone (tel: 1-800-668-6868.).If you need immediate assistance call 911 or go to the nearest hospital.
I spent a week once with Alfred Alvarez. I learned of his friendship with poet Sylvia Plath which lasted until her now-famous suicide in February of 1963. I also learned of his own personal, lifelong struggle with melancholy and his failed attempt at suicide in 1960. Alvarez’s knowledge of literature, poetry, and philosophy was outstanding even when considered against other leading academics and public intellectuals – and his mastery of language as close to perfect as I have ever read. Why would a man like this be preoccupied with suicide?.I’ve never actually met Alvarez, though. I merely accepted an invitation to peek into his life when I randomly purchased a dog-eared copy of The Savage God: A Study of Suicide on sale in a perfectly shabby used bookstore for $1.75 – less than the price of a cup of coffee.. 220px-Al_AlvarezAlfred Alvarez (5 August 1929 – 23 September 2019) was an English poet, novelist, essayist and critic (Photo credit: Wikipedia) .The tragic news Monday of a suicide in front of the Alberta Legislature made me think of this book and the time I spent reading its dense pages..Most of us don’t know how to react to this news and instead wait for instructions from people who claim a superior understanding as to what an appropriate response should look like. We react to social media posts about the story with the “crying face” emoji and try hard not to comment in a way that might be deemed in bad taste before all the news is out – and, even then, we will thread lightly. Our caution is not out of respect for the family of the suicide – although that’s what we’ll say – but out of fear of saying something that treats the topic of suicide incorrectly or insensitively..In The Savage God, Alvarez writes that most attempts to understand suicide are informed by two prejudices: “the first is that high religious tone which dismisses suicide in horror as a moral crime or sickness beyond discussion” and “the second is the current scientific fashion, which, in the very process of treating suicide as a topic for serious research, manages to deny it all serious meaning by reducing despair to the boniest statistics.”.The Savage God is not your typical study of suicide. The book focuses primarily on the treatment of suicide in literature and its prevalence among the literati. “If art has no power to do evil, then it has no power to do good either,” wrote Joyce Carol Oates in her review of the book..I don’t know if Alvarez’s general treatment of suicide holds up well against current research and theory, but he wrote this book in 1971 and was witness to the transition in public thinking about suicide from religious concern with sin and salvation to a clinical treatment of the matter that deprives both the casual reader and scholar of any real insight into the human and social conditions that can influence self-murder..Suicide is, of course, complex. That’s not only true but also something we must say before offering an opinion on the matter to signal our willingness to be corrected and scolded. For the family and friends the suicide left behind Monday, there may never be answers — but this does not mean we should not look for answers as to the general causes of suicide or attempt to understand the normative or sociological theories underpinning the topic. And in looking for answers, my instincts are almost always to look backward at the intellectual literature and not forward, as I see little evidence of serious thinking among intellectuals today – as evidenced by modern attempts to dismiss suicide as merely an expression of personal autonomy..Emile Durkheim, the 19th century founder of social science as an academic discipline, believed there are three major categories of suicide: egoistic, altruistic and anomic..Loosely explained, an egoistic suicide is one in which the suicide has little attachment to society and feels alone and abandoned. The altruistic suicide is one in which the suicide has too much attachment to society or, more specifically, to the frustrated ambitions of his or her in-group within society. And, the anomic suicide, of primary interest here, is one in which suicide is “the result of a change in a man’s social position so sudden that he is unable to cope with his new situation,” according to Alvarez’s reading of Durkheim’s seminal work Suicide..I know nothing of the reasons the man who committed suicide in front of the Alberta legislature might have had for taking his own life – but if we take Durkheim’s theory of anomic suicide seriously, we can understand why too many Albertans have one foot on the terra firma and another in the firmament..In September of this year, a research report by University of Calgary professor Ron Kneebone makes the connection between Alberta’s economic hardships and rising suicides rates in the province. A grim calculation in the report Suicide and the Economy shows that a “one percentage point increase in the unemployment rate increases the suicide rate by a statistically significant 2.8 percent.” This translates into approximately 17 additional suicides in Alberta each year for every one percent increase in the unemployment rate..This is not a political statement on the tragic event Monday afternoon in Edmonton — or at least it’s not intended to be one. It’s the hard and honest truth about at-risk Albertans struggling to adjust to the changing economic situation in the province, whether they are unemployed oil patch workers or public sector employees uncertain about the future..And if you think I’m incorrect in any of this or that I’m being insensitive, my response is this: It’s complex, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look for answers. The very public suicide Monday should not be exploited now, or even later as facts unfold, to advance a particular political narrative — but it should provoke a more serious discussion of a taboo subject..If you are feeling suicidal contact Crisis Services Canada (tel: 1-833-456-4566 or text 45645), Centre for Suicide Prevention (tel: 1-833-456-4566) or Kids Help Phone (tel: 1-800-668-6868.).If you need immediate assistance call 911 or go to the nearest hospital.
