Citation

Washington RO, McCarley LD. J. Hum. Behav. Soc. Environ. 1998; 1(2-3): 225-242.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/10911359.1998.10530794

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper offers an alternative explanation to the rationalist perspective of black suicides in the United States. It assumes a deconstructionist approach, offering the proposition that the social construction of reality in the black community is such that suicide among blacks occurs at a far greater number than their quantitative measures reveal.The postmodern turn is far more interpretive in placing the reality of black suicide in context than the modernist language of Durkheim and others. The postmodern turn suggests that there is more to black suicides in the United States than meets the eye-more, in that the word, suicide, carries "traces" of other words and texts. Social workers, as enablers and facilitators, must grasp the significance of this social reconstruction if they are to have an impact upon the intertextual nature of black suicides. © 1998 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Black suicide; Deconstructionist approach; Postmodern