Citation

Saladini O, Luauté JP. Ann. Med. Psychol. (Paris) 2021; 179(9): 825-829.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Societe Medico-Psychologique, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.amp.2021.09.007

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

If suicidal contagion is now a well-established fact, the past centuries have demonstrated that it wasn't previously accepted as it is now. But, thanks to the voluminous literature then published, we can better comprehend and try to explain the mechanisms entailed in this process. Thus, the phenomenon of mass suicide (mass cluster) is opposed to more localized phenomenon of contagion (point cluster). In the first case, the deleterious role of media could be established in the broadcast of the phenomenon; it is known under the term "Werther effect". Its importance is such that the highest Health's Authorities recommend prudence to the press when it comes to broadcasting these informations. Suicidal contagion satisfies all the criterions of what we have called Collective Psychogenic Phenomenons and this syndrome, applied to many facts, allows to modelized them. © 2021 Elsevier Masson SAS

Language: en

Keywords

literature; suicide; Suicide; Vulnerability; Media; Suicidal risk; syndrome; Contagion; Imitation; telecommunication; Article; Focus of contamination