Surface and Latent Meanings in Male's Suicide Notes: A Two-Legged Qualitative Study

Canbolat F., GENÇÖZ F.

OMEGA-JOURNAL OF DEATH AND DYING, vol.86, no.3, pp.930-944, 2023 (SSCI) identifier identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 86 Issue: 3
  • Publication Date: 2023
  • Doi Number: 10.1177/0030222821995002
  • Journal Name: OMEGA-JOURNAL OF DEATH AND DYING
  • Journal Indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, ASSIA, IBZ Online, Periodicals Index Online, Abstracts in Social Gerontology, AgeLine, ATLA Religion Database, CINAHL, EBSCO Education Source, Education Abstracts, EMBASE, MEDLINE, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, Psycinfo, Social services abstracts, Sociological abstracts, Violence & Abuse Abstracts
  • Page Numbers: pp.930-944
  • Keywords: Lacanian analysis, psychotherapy, qualitative study, Suicide notes, the Other
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the phenomenon of suicide, which is a global health problem, by utilizing suicide notes. Our main concern in this article is to understand why a person leaves suicide notes before committing suicide; indeed, this question may shed light on particular personal characteristics of the note-leavers. 12 documents containing suicide notes, belonging to Turkish males, were obtained from Prosecutor office. By using an inductive and interpretative method, firstly, we conducted a semantic level analysis; and subsequently, we deeply analyzed the data by conducting latent level analyses from a Lacanian point of view. At the end of this cumulative process, we labelled the latent themes as 'ambivalence of emotions', 'issues associated with separation' and 'issues associated with the Law'. Within the scope of those findings, a diagnostic discussion was provided. This discussion designated a picture of narcissism in addition to a psychotic structure, specifically paranoia.