Notes on Suicide

by Simon Critchley, David Hume (Afterword)

Suicide is everywhere. It haunts history and current events. It haunts our own networks of friends and family. The spectre of suicide looms large, but the topic is taboo because any meaningful discussion must at the very least consider that the answer to the question — ‘is life worth living?’ — might not be an emphatic yes; it might even be a stern no. Through a sweeping historical overview of suicide, a moving literary survey of famous suicide notes, and a psychological analysis of himself, Simon Critchley offers us an insight into what it means to possess the all too human gift and curse of being of being able to choose life or death.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Essays, Psychology, Death, Mental Health, Psychoanalysis

92 pages, Paperback

First published September 23, 2015

About the author

Simon Critchley (born 27 February 1960 in Hertfordshire) is an English philosopher currently teaching at The New School. He works in continental philosophy. Critchley argues that philosophy commences in disappointment, either religious or political. These two axes may be said largely to inform his published work: religious disappointment raises the question of meaning and has to, as he sees it, deal with the problem of nihilism; political disappointment provokes the question of justice and raises the need for a coherent ethics [...]

Reviews

[Steven R. Kraaijeveld · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be human is to have the capacity, at each and every moment, of killing oneself. Incarceration, humiliation, disappointment, disease – the world can do all of this to us, but it cannot remove the possibility of suicide. For as long as we keep this power in our hands, then we are, in some minimal but real sense, free. (72)

Camus begins The Myth of Sisyphus with the words, "There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide." I think that anyone who has reflected deeply on life has spent time thinking about death; and if you have thought seriously about death, you have probably contemplated suicide. Not in the sense that you have actually considered committing it. You don't have to go as far as Nietzsche, who wrote that "The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one gets through many a dark night." While perhaps liberating to a few, the thought that one can end one's life at any moment is frightening and outright unacceptable to most. Suicide is still one of the big taboos in today's society – both in deed and discourse. When people end their lives in response to a severe depression, the loss of a loved one, or a similarly painful psychological or circumstantial reason, this is one of the most unquestionably tragic things that can happen. However, the notion of suicide becomes philosophically interesting only when such reasons are absent, or at least when they do not explicitly play a role. In a sense, the option of discontinuing our lives is one of our greatest freedoms – and one of our few true freedoms at that. The other day I was listening to an episode of Philosophy Bites, one of my favorite podcasts, which happened to be on suicide and its philosophical implications. The interviewee was Simon Critchley, and the talk was intriguing. I figured that Critchley must have written on the subject, so I did some searching and found that he recently published this extended essay entitled Notes on Suicide. I ordered it and decided to read it right away.

As promising as the essay initially appeared, it was ultimately disappointing. Critchley takes Camus's question as a starting point to his inquiry into the ending of one's life, and provides a historical overview of (reflections on) suicide as well as a literary survey of suicide notes. He builds especially on the thoughts of Hume, Améry, and Cioran to get past the intuitive, emotional – and rather contradictory – reactions to the phenomenon, as well as the religious (particularly Christian theological) and moral condemnation of suicide in order to examine it more dispassionately and philosophically. In the end, he doesn't add all that much to the discussion, however. Nor are his more unique contributions, like the love-hate aspect of suicide notes, worked to a satisfactory degree. The suicide notes that Critchley shares seem handpicked to make a point that is not convincingly argued (the short reference to Freud is not sufficient, in my opinion, to ground suicide notes as such in a kind of love-hate). Oddly, the discussion remains rather superficial in certain areas where you would expect Critchley to go into greater depth. Perhaps, in the end, he didn't dare, no matter how bravely he attempts to take the issue on (the essay has a personal dimension, since it was written after a dark period in Critchley's life, as he tells us – he opens with the words, "This book is not a suicide note").

There is one thought which was particularly interesting to me, and that is the notion of suicide-homicide. It is especially relevant now, in a time when people appear to increasingly go out and kill people while killing themselves. Perhaps the essay suffers, then, by virtue of its form – its subject seems to demand a book rather than a short reflection. The suicide note analysis is fascinating and may tell us much – but, and maybe this is the scientist in me speaking, it won't tell us much as such without a more systematic analysis.

[I'll add more to the review, and reformulate it, later.]

[cypt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Visiškai trumputė atseit filosofinė esė, kuria nesiekiama suprasti savižudybės, nesiekiama psichologizuoti arba įsigyventi į norinčio nusižudyti / kito žmogaus savižudybę patyrusio žmogaus būsenas, bet gana sėkmingai siekiama apskritai apie ją kalbėti. Taip, kad tai taptų ne baisiu, nepamąstomu dalyku, tabu, pavojaus signalu, rėkiančiu "bėk šalin" arba "pulk traukti žmogų iš degančio namo", o - gyvenimo faktu. Tas veikiausiai ir yra sunkiausia - suvokti (priimti?) savižudybę kaip pasirinkimą, ne kaip silpnumo, nebegalėjimo aktą, ne ieškoti priežasčių KODĖĖĖL, ne bandyti "suprasti", o tiesiog priimti, kad žmonės taip pasielgia.

Tekste Critchley'is daro bent kelis svarbius dalykus: pirma, neužsiciklina ties savo patirtimi, savo išgyvenimais, tuo, kaip jis ką nors išgyveno ir per kokius suvokimo kalnus perlipo (nors garantuotai kiekviena/s, na arba beveik kiekviena/s turime artimesnę ar tolimesnę patirtį); antra, visiškai nesileidžia į moralę - ką mes turime, turėtume, norime daryti, kaip elgtis akivaizdoje to, kad kitas renkasi mirti. Ar etiška bandyti priimti tai kaip pasirinkimą..jis apie tai nesvarsto ir net nelenda į visus šitus klausimus. Ir tuo knyga veikia kažkaip terapiškai, raminančiai, neturi jokio performatyvumo, nenori niekur tavęs pastūmėti, paskatinti, niekaip paveikti.

Visgi pirma teksto pusė gerokai silpnesnė: ten jis mokykliškai vardina priežastis, kodėl savižudybė laikoma nuodėme, tolygia žmogžudystei, kodėl ji laikoma gėdinga ir apskritai unspeakable, ir jas dekonstruoja. Aišku, jo tikslas - ne ją propaguoti, o grąžinti iš tabu į sritį, apie kurią galima kalbėti, vertinti ir kažkaip priimti. Bet skaitant tai vis tiek atrodo toks betikslis plepėjimas: koks skirtumas, ar mirtina nuodėmė, ar nuodėmė, ar juodas dramblys, - kai savižudybė kažkur šalia nutinka, tai ji tiesiog yra. Ir tu nepuoli galvot ir sverti, ar čia gėda, ar nuodėmė; užduotis yra jau vien su ja kažkaip išbūti. Kaip apie meilės pabaigą (bet labai tinka ir čia) kažkada rašė Kukulas: O dabar aišku viena: atsisveikinimas su meile yra neaprašomas, / Bet visur ir visiems turbūt vienodas. Kai atsisveikinsit, tai suprasit. Taigi tie svarstymai - tokie biški laužti iš piršto ir iš reikalo.
(Neminint to, kad šiaip jau visi Critchley'o argumentai, kodėl nevalia automatiškai smerkti ar tabuizuoti savižudybės, yra perimti ir išplėtoti iš 18 a. parašyto Davido Hume'o teksto apie savižudybę, kuris ir pats publikuojamas mano turimo Fitzcarraldo leidimo pabaigoj - basically kad žmogus niekam nėra įsipareigojęs gyventi - nei bendruomenei, nei dievui, kad jis įgalus pats nuspręsti, ką daryt su savo gyvenimu (būti ar nebūti). 250 metų, o argumentai lieka tie patys, tik šiuolaikinis filosofijos profesorius biški pridėjo bajeriukų apie Robiną Williamsą ir sadistus pradinių klasių mokytojus.)

Kas man pačiai liko iš tos knygos:

1. Kad reikia perskaityt Edouard'ą Leve ir Cioraną.

2. Kad dažniausiai tame kulminaciniame taške, kai jau tą sprendimą priimi, susipina meilė ir neapykanta: sau, kitam (iš čia savižudybė kaip kerštas). Koks sunkus turėtų būti tas kokteilis ir kaip sunku apie tai - ir apie tą žmogų, kuris šitam taške atsiduria - galvot, nesvarbu, ar pripažinsi jam / jai tą pasirinkimo teisę, ar ne.

3. Simone Weil beveik politinė beveik Christ-like beveik savižudybė - kaip ji mirė badu, pasirinkusi nesilaikyti specialios dietos, specialaus mitybos režimo, nors sirgo džiova, - nes nusprendė neturėti geresnių sąlygų negu vokiečių okupuotos Prancūzijos gyventojai. Nors pati tuo metu jau gyveno Jav. Turbūt čia lengviausia matyti tą savarankiško pasirinkimo mirti momentą. Bet ar čia ne ta pati "paskirstymo" logika: yra dalykai, dėl kurių gali apsispręsti atsisakyt gyvenimo (idėjos), o yra - dėl ko negali; yra dalykai, kurių gali būti gaila iki mirties, o yra - dėl ko negali / neturi / dėl ko tave reikia gelbėti ir "padėti pasijusti geriau". Kodėl mirti kaip Kristui - garbė ir šlovė, o mirti kaip Judui - jau žemiausias taškas?

4. Vis dėlto šiokį tokį terapinį poveikį knyga turi - perskaičius ir ima nervas, ir supranti, kad realiai nėra veiksmų programos, nėra dealinimo strategijų, jei savižudybė nutinka - ji ir nutinka, ir tu nei gali ką nors dėl to pakeisti, nei "galėjai" ką nors pakeisti, kad ji nebūtų nutikusi. Nu arba supranti tik tam kartui - iki kitos bangos, kuri, kaip Judith Butler rašo, užplūsta tave bet kada, bet kur ir paralyžiuoja, ir jokie racionalūs pamąstymai nieko negali tau duoti - tiesiog susiduri su savo suvokimo ribom. Ne durim.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Critchley is a philosophy professor at New York’s New School for Social Research. However, he wrote this short essay from a beach hotel in East Anglia. Although he reassures readers with his first line that “This book is not a suicide note,” he also hints that its writing was inspired by personal trouble: “my life has dissolved over the past year or so, like sugar in hot tea.” Not suicidal himself, then, but certainly sympathetic to those who are driven to self-murder.

This concise essay illuminates arguments surrounding suicide, with points of reference ranging from Greek philosophers to Kurt Cobain and Robin Williams. Overall, though, it feels cursory and inconclusive. (Note: In a curious inversion, the afterword is a historical piece, the posthumous eighteenth-century essay “Of Suicide” by Scottish philosopher David Hume.)

See my full review at Nudge.

[Mehwish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once in a while, you come across a book that blows your mind away. This book is just that.

Simon begins off with introducing people who committed suicide after submitting their work on suicide. Sylvia Plath came to my mind and had me thinking what if there is a correlation between people who have penned their thoughts on suicide and the actual act of committing suicide. The data suggests such a possibility but this book is not about that.

Simon clarifies his position right in the beginning, he does not condemn suicide - he does not believe that it is a “moral or legal” offense. Is he advocating for suicide? The answer is “No”. He discusses at length the issue with how we perceive and talk about suicide. We want to know “why” and “how” of a suicide. We tend to rationalize it, we condemn it, we pity it, we look for the causes, mental illnesses or otherwise. He is asking us to change our stance, our stance of either romanticizing suicide or loathing it.

Why did he write this book? He struggles with suicidal ideation and this book is perhaps a genuine attempt to play his role in understanding what is happening with him and in general how we view suicide. At this point (16 pages) into the book, I was glued. I was hooked. I wanted to find out his ultimate verdict. I knew that he knows the struggle of getting up in the morning with thinking about nothing else other than To be or not to be! So I surrendered myself completely and let him walk me through his mind.

The first chapter is an analysis of the history of suicide but it is not “just” an academic historical lesson on suicide. He sets out to answer a specific question, “Why is suicide seen as illegal, immoral or irreligious?”

Socrates and Seneca both were both declared criminals and were sentenced to take their own lives. And then there was, according to Simon, a shift in thinking, from accepting to rejecting suicide. The answer he believes lived in Christian theology. He singles out an event from history to let the story run smoothly. Radicati, a protestant wrote “A philosophical dissertation upon death” in order to legitimize suicide. That did not work out well but he left his imprint. John Donne was another key player in trying to legitimize suicide and predates Radicati but that did not work out well as well. He further discusses the legal denouncement of suicide over time.

In the next part, he presents the key arguments set forth for and against suicide from religious and secular perspectives. He deconstructs each major argument philosophically and logically and forces the reader to seriously reset their mindset.

These are the arguments:

“Suicide is wrong because only God has proper moral authority over our lives.”
“Suicide is prohibited because life is a gift from God.”
“Thou shalt not kill”, the sixth commandment
“Violation of sanctity of life”
“Suicide is wrong because life is a gift from parents/community etc.”
“Violation of sanctity of life”
“Right to suicide because of self-ownership”
“Do our duties to others override our personal claim to the “right” to suicide?”
“Suicide is justified if it is rationally chosen”
“Justification based on autonomy”

With this newly found ground, I entered the third part – the suicide notes
He introduces Freud’s hate-love theory: “This also partially explains the phenomenon of the suicide note and its mixture of depression and exhibitionism, where self-love becomes hatred and one dies apologizing for one’s actions.”

Suicide comes in various forms and so does the accompanying suicide notes – to extract revenge, for retribution, self-justification, entitlement, for the sake of love, hatred, suffering, politics, altruistic, business, economic, shame, pride, fantasy, and self-pity.

In the last part, Simon plays his final card, gives his verdict, and tells us to wait just a little longer. We already have the option of suicide then why the hurry? Asks us to love. To move away from hating ourselves and to start loving something/someone else.

He focuses on Virginia Woolf’s struggle and suicide note and then deliberately asks the reader to focus on the “life” in her work. “It is not Woolf’s suicide that grants her life coherence. That coherence is provided by the courage of her work and what she wrote about life.”

Just love and might as well live.

P.S. I am going to buy a copy!

[Marina Pintor · Rating 5 out of 5]

En la primera página de este librito, el filósofo Simon Critchley deja claro que lo que nos disponemos a leer no es ninguna nota de suicidio, aunque admite que lleva una temporada luchando contra lo que los psiquiatras llaman ideación tanánitca. Al terminar de leer, mi sensación es que el ensayo no solo no es una nota de suicidio, sino que es el resultado de un ejercicio reflexivo y de escritura que el autor necesitaba hacer para no acabar matándose.
Es una preciosidad de ensayo, de los que se devoran en un suspiro y te obligan a subrayar la mitad del texto y a anotar en los márgenes constantemente. Me ha pasado por lo menos tres o cuatro veces lo más gratificante que te puede pasar cuando lees filosofía: cuando el autor de repente responde preguntas o aborda cuestiones que echabas de menos y que ya creías que había pasado por alto. Critchley se carga con toda la elegancia los argumentos en que se apoyan los que defienden lo inmoral del suicidio, para seguidamente cargarse con toda la elegancia los argumentos en que se apoyan los que defienden lo contrario. Como todo lo que va más allá de la pseudofilosofía y la autoayuda cutre, al final no hay demasiadas respuestas, pero sí que queda la dulce sensación de que el autor ha decidido, aunque no lo diga de manera explícita, que, al menos de momento, para él seguir viviendo es la decisión correcta.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Critchley is a professional philosopher, so I'll note that it's majorly to his credit that he writes clearly. I never once found myself bumping up against Lacanese cathexis-desire-objects or whatever - never felt the dread of stepping onto the perpendicular teeth of the This-ness of That-ness. What I did encounter, though lucid, sadly, was limp, loose ratiocination - arguments so poorly worked out as to appear merely cast off. On the one hand, Critchley wants to lay most of the blame for suicide's status as an outlawed and shame-inducing act at the feet of Christian theologians; on the other hand, he provides multiple examples of Eastern non-Christian (indeed pre-Christian) cultures who also looked down upon self-killing: the ancient Chinese, he tells us, would decapitate the child of a suicided adult as a warning to others with similar ideas. It seems that suicide has been looked down upon for all time and by all peoples - and for good reason. As with most philosophers, Critchley seems to have looked past common sense: we tend to detest suicide, not because it puts us at odds with the laws of God, but because in so many cases the thing the suicidal person is running from CAN be dealt with: whether that's money problems, relationship problems, addiction problems, and so on, the reasons for suicide can be resolved and removed. The terminal patient is another question - one which Critchley barely bothers to address, even though most of the marrow for a meaningful argument in favor of self-killing resides therein. Anyway, it's hard to make suicide uninteresting, and so I was fairly gripped by the available sociological and historical details, but too much of this book frankly stinks of diary writing (it's there in the title, "Notes," so I guess that's my bad expecting more?). Which is all to say that I wish there was more polish, more thought, more tightness brought to this important topic.

[Eva Lavrikova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Asi pred mesiacom som sedela vo vlaku, bol stred týždňa, vlak takmer prázdny. Do kupé ku mne pristúpila staršia pani. Pustili sme sa do reči. Chodieva pravidelne vlakom na cintorín. Prejsť sa po meste. Zastaví sa na kávu. A potom sa ďalším vlakom vráti domov. Roky na dôchodku pracovala ako opatrovateľka v Rakúsku. Prežila si všeličo. Ponižovanie ako opatrovateľka. Rozvod. Samotu. Smrť iných, nedobrovoľnú i dobrovoľnú. V istej chvíli sa na mňa pozrela a vraví: "Tí, čo si myslia, že samovražda je pre slabochov, sa mýlia. Na samovraždu treba odvahu. Ako veľmi už človek musí trpieť, keď nevidí iné východisko, a koľko odvahy musí nazbierať, aby ukončil svoj život..." Krátko na to vystúpila.
Približne s rovnakou intenzitou si v sebe nesiem aj zážitok z prečítania tejto knihy.

[Alana · Rating 4 out of 5]

by seriously taking a look at suicide instead of that instant ray gun zap of IT BAD DONT DO IT, i found it to be one of the most life afirming things i've read. Critchley is a total G.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesante, algo corto, me gusta que hayan incluido el epílogo con Sobre el suicidio de Hume

[Abdulaziz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book that I find myself lucky to read!
A very insightful approach to what is suicide, why we act it and a very introspective contemplation on suicide notes.

[Michal Mironov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Critchley uncompromisingly busts taboos and baseless myths about suicide with intellectual distance and gentle humor. He shows that society is often too lazy (or frightened) to face this unpleasant phenomenon and rather relies on religious prejudices or ignorance. Even in modern and secular communities it is very convenient to classify all suicides simply as a case of untreated mental illness. But…. can you definitely rule out that suicide can be also committed by a perfectly sane, mentally balanced person, as a result of a thorough and free decision? What if suicide is one of the determining abilities that differentiates humans from animals? Despite the morbid topic, Critchley remains slightly optimistic and, at the end of the book, offers at least one good reason why to stay alive… 😊 .

[Maťa Levásovská · Rating 3 out of 5]

Samovražda je veľmi ťažká téma a to hlavne z toho dôvodu, že je to ešte stále tabu a ľudia o nej neradi hovoria, myslím si, že sa jej aj boja. A práve preto by sme jej mali venovať viac priestoru. Ešte viac priestoru ako jej venoval autor tejto knihy. V tomto prípade mi to prišlo, že kniha len tak zabrdne do témy a otvorí ju, ale nie úplne naplno. Iba tak trošku. A to ma hnevá, chcela som vedieť viac.

[Maťa · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5/5

Prvá kniha z edície Skica, ktorú som prečítala. A bolo to naozaj veľmi dobré. Obzvlášť kapitola o listoch na rozlúčku. Autor v knihe triezvo predkladá fakty, vyvracia argumenty a rieši dôležité otázky typu Čo ľudí dovedie ku samovražde?  Bolo to velmi zaujímavé, zľhka depresívne a citlivejším povahám by som to asi veľmi neodorúčala.

[Eva Gat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Životná požiadavka v takejto chvíli - a nielen v takejto- znie, vymaniť sa zo života bez dôstojnosti, humanity a slobody. A tak sa smrť stáva životom, tak ako okamih zrodenia je zároveň súčasťou procesu umierania. Negácia všetkého sa stáva niečím, hoci to na nič neslúži. Je to tragikomické zlyhanie logiky a dialektiky. Ráta sa len rozhodnutie subjektu.

[Nora Eugénie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un ensayo interesante sobre el suicidio, abordando su legitimidad, moralidad y ética, los motivos que pueden llevar a dicha situación, las notas de suicidio e innumerables referencias a otros ensayos y visiones sobre el tema del mundo intelectual (filósofos, escritores, casos reales...).

[Alexandra Jurišová · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hľadáte návod ako na to? Táto kniha ním nie je 😉

[Jude Burrows · Rating 4 out of 5]

whilst I was reading this essay, I began to worry that critchley seemingly would not offered a wholly explicit opinion on his selected topic, instead favouring to dissect the subject of suicide from various theological and social viewpoints. by the end, however, I felt certain that this indeed was the perfect way to approach such a sensitive and often confusing theme - objectively, efficiently, and in a manner of speaking, coldly (whilst successfully remaining delicate and empathetic). the essay’s flow felt superbly natural and made excellently placed use of evidence and anecdotes; the section on suicide notes felt especially enlightening. critchley demonstrates that suicide can never be understood from a logical or religious perspective, and that each individual self-inflicted death should instead be viewed as a conglomeration of events and beliefs that exist outside of any social value system. critchley finishes by arguing for the ultimate ‘pessimism’ - that suicide cannot save us - and so instead we should live, and live for love. I find a certain strength in his inclination.

[Kristín Hulda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Byrjaði á þessari fyrir 1,5 ári en setti hana á ís því mér fannst ekki næs að lesa um sjálfsvíg svona stuttu eftir að ég hætti að vinna á geðdeild. Áhugaverð bók en held að hún eigi lítið erindi við flesta, nema fólk með klínískan eða heimspekilegan áhuga á sjálfsvígum. Skrifuð af heimspekiprófessor, mikið af áhugaverðum sögulegum staðreyndum um sjálfsvíg og viðhorf samfélagsins til þeirra. Það voru punktar þarna sem ég er viss um að gætu komið upp og gagnast í samtölum við skjólstæðinga með sjálfsvígshugsanir. Bókin í heild var smá samhengislaus, lélegt flæði og stundum óljóst hvað pointið var eða ætti að vera.

[‍ΟυΛιΠο]

Σημειώσεις περί αυτοκτονίας από αναλώσιμους γιάνκηδες νιου ειτζ "φιλοσόφους"
κλασσικά εικονογραφημένα και ολίγον τι φάσιον μεινστριμίλα για πράγματα που δεν μπορούν να κατανοήσουν αλλά τα βλέπουν μέσα από αυτοκτονίες σελέμπριτι σε υπερκαταναλωτικές κοινωνίες.
Πουλάει ο τίτλος και εξαπατάει..
το βιβλιο σωζεται μονο απο το τελευταιο κεφαλαιο με τον David Hume

[Void. · Rating 2 out of 5]

While claiming that this book will expand the language to speak about suicide, the author himself seems to not have all the words talking about this topic.

While there are some bits of his ideas scattered around this book, this book doesn't say much. Every notion or argument about suicide, he managed to quote the reference and then move to the next argument way too fast. He laid out all these suicide notes and works to build a question, but doesn't really answer them. "Perhaps," "maybe," "it could be," occurred as an answer a lot in this book.

I was hoping to find more depth and complexity, but so little that I get. There's also a kind of exasperation tht I felt towards the end where he suddenly takes his stand to say things like, why not calm down and enjoy the world's melancholy thaf spreads out so capaciously and delightfully before us? I kid you not, I rolled my eyes so hard at this. I don't come here for this. Even if I were, at least it should be delivered with a careful manner that aligns with the whole argument.

All in all, though Simon Critchley couldn't make up his mind on the topic of suicide in this book, perhaps he finds peace having writing this.

[M Johana Areiza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este ensayo, me trae calma, el autor de forma magistral trae una cuerda para amar la vida y no descolgarse de Ella.

Muy recomendado para ver al suicida más allá de un juicio moral condicionado por el temor de unos pocos.

[Sophie D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rolled my eyes at the end

[محمود راضي · Rating 4 out of 5]

يصدر قريبًا من ترجمتي بإذن الله.

[Zoe Hannay · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 suicide notes out of 5

[Souli Boutis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good place to start when reading of the end. Very delicate and even heartrending in parts.

[Charlie Key · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the early stuff refuting Christian views on suicide really rather sloppy and trite. Wonderful ending though

[Paolo Müller]

"Razors pain you
Rivers are damp
Acids stain you
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful
Ropes tend to give
Gas smells awful
You might as well live."

[Jim Coughenour · Rating 3 out of 5]

Often my reasons for buying a book are ridiculous. A few weeks back I read a piece in the The Guardian about a new bookstore in London where literature and lattes don’t mix, whose managers offer visitors a curated selection of "suggestive themes designed to provoke browsers into making unexpected connections." The spotlight, we’re told, will be on "cutting-edge independent publishers." Fitzcarraldo Editions is the first example, so I went hunting on its site and selected Critchley’s volume as my first sharp sample. When it arrived I was impressed by its elegance, dark blue type on a thick white paper cover. The text is set in a handsome custom typeface. Today I finally brought it with me to Peets and enjoyed it with a latte.

Who can resist a book that begins "This book is not a suicide note." What a relief. Critchley references the obvious counterexample, Edouard Levé’s Suicide – that note sufficed to ruin suicide for me. Critchley’s first couple sections are dull in a different way, dutifully dispensing with all the usual religious/moral/legal reasons that suicide is Wrong, concluding however with a wry nod toward Dorothy Parker.

The first line of Section III made me laugh out loud: "In May 2013, I organized a suicide note creative writing workshop."

Here the essay found its voice. Critchley points out an obvious but overlooked aspect of Hamlet:

What is most striking about Hamlet’s speeches is not their delusional quality, but their perspicacity.

Then there is a quick survey, painful to read, of actual suicide notes, some of which are equally perspicacious. The saddest: "DARK. Light. DARK."

… …

The next section is lighter, if only because Critchley cites Cioran, the most intentionally grim writer ever. Almost everything I read by Cioran, I read in my salad days when depression was merely a diversion, which is to say I've forgotten everything but the mood of those books. So I was surprised to find that Cioran had captured my own version of Parker’s Résumé with his typical aphoristic acuity:

Only optimists commit suicide, the optimists who can no longer be… optimists. The others, having no reason to live, why should they have any to die?
…
When people come to me saying they want to kill themselves, I tell them, "What’s your rush?"

And the "delicious coup de grâce" –

The refutation of suicide: is it not inelegant to abandon a world which has so willingly put itself at the service of our melancholy?

But this is only merry melancholy. Anyone who’s actually experienced the temptation of suicide knows the reality is stark, the true abyss. Critchley comes closer to a more genuine response when he quotes the passage from Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse in which Mrs Ramsey reviews the world and exclaims "It is enough! It is enough!" Except, of course, it wasn’t, not for Virginia.

I closed the book unpersuaded by anything, but that wasn’t the point. My imagination had been educated, which is enough. Critchley appends David Hume’s good-spirited essay "Of Suicide" – and Hume’s conclusion remains my own: "If Suicide be supposed a crime, it is only cowardice can impel us to it. If it be no crime, both prudence and courage should engage us to rid ourselves at once of existence, when it becomes a burthen. It is the only way, that we can then be useful to society, by setting an example, which, if imitated, would preserve to everyone his chance for happiness in life, and would effectually free him from all danger of misery."

This review, by the way, is not a suicide note. I haven’t had the Workshop.

[Jonathan Norton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A philosopher retreats to the English coast to write about suicide, having previously organised a jokey creating writing workshop in which participants tried to compose suicide notes. He tells us "For reasons we don't need to go into, my life has dissolved in the past year or so, like sugar in hot tea." (pg.16). What we get are some loose meditations and review of the literature, including the ancients as well as moderns such as E.M.Cioran, Virginia Woolf and Kurt Cobain, and his experiences, with David Hume's essay on suicide added as the Afterword.

I have a few problems with the style, which is far too near to the banalities of lifestyle journalism - details are "breathtaking", "striking" and "disturbing", whilst the commentary dips to "Such testimony surpasses commentary" (thanks), and "There but for the grace of God..." and other moments of handwringing, when Simon can't really match the quality of the writers he is citing, including some very interesting French authors who aren't well known in the UK. He also loses focus by extending the range to include the topical subject of the "homicide-suicides" of US mass-shooters, and we find they aren't very interesting people. The far more pertinent matter of "parasuicides" (people who failed in their attempts) gets brushed over in one paragraph.

Another big problem is the use of the first person plural in setting out the issues - "we" find and think and believe all sorts of things, and of course "we" in this instance are being assumed to be a certain sort of modern Westerner, downwind of a rather simplistic version of cultural history in which "Christianity" was one thing, which then got overturned by "science" which says or did something else, which exploded or collapsed or employed some other verb of catastrophe to transform the European mind. There are multiple problems with that kind of narrative, but even if we pass over them it means we are restricted in scope to a western viewpoint, which means we can't bring Mishima as a case for consideration (pgs 41-2), since he was governed by cultural norms that weren't western or Christian or post-Christian, and involved concepts of honour and "face" that would make more sense to the Romans.

But I'm sure Simon found some peace writing this book. I have wondered about recommending it to some other people I know, but decided on balance it wouldn't be a constructive thing to do. As for how I feel personally about the topic, and my experiences of it, I don't find all of them in this book, but I won't say any more than that.

[Areeb Ahmad (Bankrupt_Bookworm) · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Perhaps the closest we come to dying is through writing, in the sense that writing is a leave-taking from life, a temporary abandonment of the world and one's petty preoccupations in order to try to see things more clearly. One can lay things to rest in writing: ghosts, hauntings, regrets, and the memories that flay us alive."

RATING: 3.5/5

This was an unexpected bookmail Tanya had send my way through my booksta wishlist. My father had signed for it when it came early morning, and on seeing it, had been very infuriated. He confronted me about it in the evening, asking me why I was reading rubbish and if I hadn't bought it, who was gifting such nonsense. In his view, reading a book on suicide was not an acceptable activity, as if reading alone could lead to suicidal ideation, muddle my mind. It is not an unforeseen reaction. Suicide tends to be a taboo subject, something to skirt around and avoid. Critchley begins with how he does not agree with Camus' answer even though he considers the question correct. He examines the religious views on suicide, grounding himself in Christian theology, but he implicates the other Abrahamic faiths as well. The idea of life as a gift from God that cannot be squandered is a strange one and he argues against it using Hume's essay on suicide. He also probes moral condemnation of the act, ultimately aiming for dispassionate philosophical scrutiny.

I was interested in reading the book because 2020 as a year has been really hard on us all. Being stuck in one place, or being trapped in an unhealthy environment, has obviously lead to a dramatic increase in mental health issues. Depression and attendant ailments have been on the rise as a result. As someone who has struggled, and still struggles, I know too well the hypnotic allure of such trains of thought. My fascination with the academic treatment of the subject then really should not come as a surprise. Critchley begins strongly, writing from a dark period of his own life so attuned to the intricacies of the issue. But by the end, he doesn't have much to add to the ongoing discussion apart from echoing points made before already. The essay's length indicates the cursory nature of its arguments. While he does have interesting things to say about the love-hate feature of suicide notes, and on suicide notes in general, he does not explore those ideas fully as would have befitted them. I did like it, and it works as a primer but feels too superficial beyond that, unfortunately.