Citation

Kostnapfel J. Psychiatr. Danub. 2006; 18(Suppl 1): 55.

Affiliation

Medical Faculty Ljubljana, Gregorciceva 9, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. tatja.kostnapfel@guest.arnes.si.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Facultas Universitatis Studiorum Zagrabiensis - Danube Symposion of Psychiatry)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

16963938

Abstract

A heroic suicide could be perceived as an act when a human being terminates its own life "of free will and at clear consciousness", as a sacrifice with the aim to destroy the aggressor or as an act of protest or to convey a humanitarian message. Examples are the deaths of a mayor and two officers during the invasion of the occupying forces in Yugoslavia in the year 1941 and the self-combustion of a student in the year 1969 during the occupation of Czechoslovakia. Individual solders have covered the eye of the enemy bunker with their bodies or jumped on a tank. Japanese kamikaze died in attacks with planes adapted for suicidal attacks. In the year 1942, at Ogenjca in Slovenia, a nurse, after first shooting seven injured partisans according to their request, shot herself to avoid being captured alive by the enemy. History recorded the mass suicide of besieged Jews in Masada in the first century A.D. The issue of the degree of "free" will and "clear consciousness" of individuals committing such suicides is raised. Would it be possible that their consciousness was disturbed psychogenically, for example ideologically, religiously, fatalistically or chemically by alcohol or drugs? Some suicide experts deny the existence of "heroic" suicide with Contradiction in adiecto, while others recognize it. A suicide can be considered heroic when certain conditions are met. These include that the individual or a group do not endanger the lives of others who are not involved in the event. Thus suicide bombers and individuals in car-bombs who activate their bombs among civilians do not fulfil the criteria for a heroic suicide.

Language: en