Citation

Czabański A. Suicydologia 2010; 5-6(1): 41-52.

Affiliation

Department of Social Sciences, Uniwersytet Medyczny im. Karola Marcinkowskiego w Poznaniu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Via Medica)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Cases of the so-called altruistic facultative suicide are analyzed in the paper. The phenomenon was characterized and its specific variants were distinguished, including suicide as a political protest, conspirators’ suicide, battleground suicide with the aim of saving one’s comrades, suicide committed by soldiers to destroy the enemy and their infrastructure, and by terrorists - suicide bombers. No single social profile of the altruistic suicide has been found. On the other hand, it should be noted that mechanisms and social consequences of the phenomenon are diverse.

Keywords: altruistic suicide, prosocial attitude, optional heroic act