After Robin Williamss suicide, there has been a lot of discussion about depression, mental illness and the long struggles that eventuate in taking ones life. In general, Im really glad to see outpourings of empathy and understanding, and hope this frees more people getting the help they need without shame. But a couple things are troubling. In the attempt to exonerate or valorise Williamss actions, we read, as in one particular Huffpo piece that has been going the rounds, that suicide is not selfish, in others even that it is not an action or choice at all. This, in my mind, is troubling in that it reduces Williams and others who have taken their own lives to mere automatons, devoid not simply of moral choice but of a network of personal, embodied responsibilities to real people. As in all deeply ingrained ways of being, depression reduces the freedom to act, but does not somehow erase it. If suicide is not an action, not a choice, then nothing is. At least the ancient Stoics and the French existentialists saw this. To be born into this world is to find oneself confronted with the face of others, to receive in the other an absolute responsibility and demand. To suggest that foregoing that responsibility, even in the midst of great strain and personal suffering, is not a selfish act with repercussions for others is to undervalue the real sacrifice of those who persevere - caveats about the incommensurability of suffering notwithstanding - and so to miss the nature of love in this broken world. To recognise this responsibility is not somehow to condemn Williams or to blame the victim; rather, we need to think about complex phenomena like suicide in a complex manner that does not simply reduce to the American fascination with excuses. As the son of a father who took his own life when I was 8, I am deeply sorrowed for Williams and his family. But such tragedies are not helped by vacuous platitudes, or the unreflective repetition of truisms designed to assuage guilt.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 11:44:00 +0000