An icon’s death often leads to grief getting the better of reason
Dr. CR Chandrashekhar
Professor of Psychiatry – NIMHANS, Bangalore
The news of YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s death, which spread like
wildfire, pushed many mourners to take their own lives. While some killed themselves, others died of heart attack caused by the unbearable grief. But what caught my attention were the people who committed or attempted suicide on learning of the political leader’s demise. None of us has forgotten the uproar that Michael Jackson’s death stirred up. News related to MJ still gets updated every hour. When a film star or a mass leader dies, we Indians do not lag behind in the public display of grief by either killing ourselves or by protesting violently! Fans of famous personalities normally commit suicide because they are not able to digest the cruel reality of their icon’s death. Though psychology does not have any particular term for these types of suicides and suicide attempts, this tendency is said to arise from uncontrollable grief.
One might have seen suicidal tendencies in people who have lost either a family member or a dear one. They think of suicide because they feel the world and life are empty without the existence of the loved ones. The same mentality or feeling plays in this context too. They may set themselves ablaze or consume poison or even hang themselves, but all they want to do is flee from the irrepressible grief that the death has caused.
Strong faith, admiration or love forces some people to go to any extent to express their feelings. The same can be reiterated in the case of suicide bombers. Though the suicide after the death of an icon differs from that of a suicide bomber, there are some associations which somewhere link these two mentalities. If the former decides to end his life after the death of an iconic figure, the latter destroys everything to show how faithful he is to his ideology.
One may recall the spate of suicides by debt-ridden farmers in different parts of the country. A farmer may commit suicide as an act of imitation when the members of his fraternity, driven by debt and penury, kill themselves. He may also think about committing suicide keeping an eye on the compensation amount that his family is likely to get after his death. I call this kind of suicides mass hysteria. Because here the suicidal tendency increases as they learn about suicide cases from the media. If a television channel telecasts a programme about such suicides, I am sure at least four to five people tend to follow suit.
Dr. CR Chandrashekhar
Professor of Psychiatry – NIMHANS, Bangalore
The news of YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s death, which spread like
wildfire, pushed many mourners to take their own lives. While some killed themselves, others died of heart attack caused by the unbearable grief. But what caught my attention were the people who committed or attempted suicide on learning of the political leader’s demise. None of us has forgotten the uproar that Michael Jackson’s death stirred up. News related to MJ still gets updated every hour. When a film star or a mass leader dies, we Indians do not lag behind in the public display of grief by either killing ourselves or by protesting violently! Fans of famous personalities normally commit suicide because they are not able to digest the cruel reality of their icon’s death. Though psychology does not have any particular term for these types of suicides and suicide attempts, this tendency is said to arise from uncontrollable grief.One might have seen suicidal tendencies in people who have lost either a family member or a dear one. They think of suicide because they feel the world and life are empty without the existence of the loved ones. The same mentality or feeling plays in this context too. They may set themselves ablaze or consume poison or even hang themselves, but all they want to do is flee from the irrepressible grief that the death has caused.
Strong faith, admiration or love forces some people to go to any extent to express their feelings. The same can be reiterated in the case of suicide bombers. Though the suicide after the death of an icon differs from that of a suicide bomber, there are some associations which somewhere link these two mentalities. If the former decides to end his life after the death of an iconic figure, the latter destroys everything to show how faithful he is to his ideology.
One may recall the spate of suicides by debt-ridden farmers in different parts of the country. A farmer may commit suicide as an act of imitation when the members of his fraternity, driven by debt and penury, kill themselves. He may also think about committing suicide keeping an eye on the compensation amount that his family is likely to get after his death. I call this kind of suicides mass hysteria. Because here the suicidal tendency increases as they learn about suicide cases from the media. If a television channel telecasts a programme about such suicides, I am sure at least four to five people tend to follow suit.
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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative
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