Suicide by Self-Immolation

Suicide by Self-Immolation PDF

Author: César A. Alfonso

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-02-02

Total Pages: 261

ISBN-13: 303062613X

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This book addresses biopsychosocial and transcultural determinants of suicide by self-immolation, populations at risk throughout the world and prevention strategies specifically designed for young women in fragile environments. Self-immolation, the act of burning oneself as a means of suicide, is rare in high-income countries, and is usually a symbolic display of political protest among men that generally receives international media coverage. In contrast, in low- and-middle-income countries it is highly prevalent, primarily affects women, and may be one of the most common suicide methods in regions of Central and South Asia and parts of Africa. Psychiatric conditions, like adjustment disorders, traumatic stress disorders, and major depression, and family dynamics that include intimate partner violence, forced marriages, the threat of honor killings, and interpersonal family conflicts in a cultural context of war-related life events, poverty, forced migration and ethnic conflicts are important contributing factors. Written by over 40 academic psychiatrists from all continents, sociologists, and historians, the book covers topics such as region-specific cultural and historical factors associated with suicide; the role of religion and belief systems; marginalization, oppression, retraumatization and suicide risk; countertransference aspects of working in burn centers; responsible reporting and the media; and suicide prevention strategies to protect those at risk.

Martyrdom, Self-sacrifice, and Self-immolation

Martyrdom, Self-sacrifice, and Self-immolation PDF

Author: Margo Kitts

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 0190656484

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Suicide in the forms of martyrdom, self-sacrifice, or self-immolation is perennially controversial: Should it rightly be termed suicide? Does religion sanction it? Should it be celebrated or anathematized? At least some idealization of such self-chosen deaths is found in every religious tradition treated in this volume, from ascetic heroes who conquer their passions to save others by dying, to righteous warriors who suffer and die valiantly while challenging the status quo. At the same time, there are persistent disputes about the concepts used to justify these deaths, such as altruism, heroism, and religion itself. In this volume, renowned scholars bring their literary and historical expertise to bear on the contested issue of religiously sanctioned suicide. Three examine contemporary movements with disputed classical roots, while eleven look at classical religious literatures which variously laud and disparage figures who invite self-harm to the point of death. Overall, the volume offers an important scholarly corrective to the axiom that religious traditions simply and always embrace life at any cost.

A Cruel Theatre of Self-Immolations

A Cruel Theatre of Self-Immolations PDF

Author: Grzegorz Ziółkowski

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-02-13

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0429602227

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A Cruel Theatre of Self-Immolations investigates contemporary protest self-burnings and their echoes across culture. The book provides a conceptual frame for the phenomenon and an annotated, comprehensive timeline of suicide protests by fire, supplemented with notes on artworks inspired by or devoted to individual cases. The core of the publication consists of six case studies of these ultimate acts, augmented with analyses and interpretations hailing from the visual arts, film, theatre, architecture, and literature. By examining responses to these events within an interdisciplinary frame, Ziółkowski highlights the phenomenon’s global reach and creates a broad, yet in-depth, exploration of the problems that most often prompt these self-burnings, such as religious discrimination and harassment, war and its horrors, the brutality and indoctrination of authoritarian regimes and the apathy they produce, as well as the exploitation of the so-called "subalterns" and their exclusion from mainstream economic systems. Of interest to scholars from an array of fields, from theatre and performance, to visual art, to religion and politics, A Cruel Theatre of Self-Immolations offers a unique look at voluntary, demonstrative, and radical performances of shock and subversion.

Suicide Protest in South Asia

Suicide Protest in South Asia PDF

Author: Simanti Lahiri

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-04-03

Total Pages: 183

ISBN-13: 1317803132

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The radical act of suicide protest is undertaken by social movement participants in order to demand a particular previously articulated political outcome. This book examines the history and impact of suicide protest, which has been increasingly used as a protest tactic since World War II, adding to a growing area of research on the ability of certain actions to impact policy in favour of movement goals. The book offers a combination of historical and contemporary cases analysis from South Asia, where different iterations of this tactic have been used extensively throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, including the use of fasting to the death, self-immolation, and deliberate drowning. Focussing on the success or failure or a particular action relevant to the movement’s broader mobilization strategy, the author examines the internal impact this has on the movement and the mechanisms by which suicide as a form of protest evolves. Providing a unique contribution to the field of comparative politics, political violence and social movement studies this book will be of interest to scholars working on political science, sociology and South Asian studies.

Making Sense of Suicide Missions

Making Sense of Suicide Missions PDF

Author: Diego Gambetta

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2006-09-21

Total Pages: 430

ISBN-13: 0199297975

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"Suicide attacks are a defining act of political violence and an extraordinary social phenomenon. This book investigates the organizers of suicide missions and the perpetrators alike"--Provided by publisher.

Political Self-Sacrifice

Political Self-Sacrifice PDF

Author: K. M. Fierke

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 1107029236

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This book examines a variety of different forms of political self-sacrifice, including hunger strikes, self-burning, and non-violent martyrdom.

Burning for the Buddha

Burning for the Buddha PDF

Author: James A. Benn

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2007-02-28

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 0824861736

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Burning for the Buddha is the first book-length study of the theory and practice of "abandoning the body"(self-immolation) in Chinese Buddhism. It examines the hagiographical accounts of all those who made offerings of their own bodies and places them in historical, social, cultural, and doctrinal context. Rather than privilege the doctrinal and exegetical interpretations of the tradition, which assume the central importance of the mind and its cultivation, James Benn focuses on the ways in which the heroic ideals of the bodhisattva present in scriptural materials such as the Lotus Sutra played out in the realm of religious practice on the ground.

Tibet on Fire

Tibet on Fire PDF

Author: Tsering Woeser

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2016-01-12

Total Pages: 85

ISBN-13: 178478155X

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Why Tibetan monks are setting themselves on fire Since the 2008 uprising, nearly 150 Tibetan monks have set fire to themselves in protest at the Chinese occupation of their country. Most have died from their injuries. Author Tsering Woeser is a prominent voice of the Tibetan movement, and one of the few Tibetan authors to write in Chinese. Her stirring acts of resistance have led to her house arrest, where she remains under close surveillance to this day. Tibet On Fire is her account of the oppression Tibetans face and the ideals driving those who resist, both the self-immolators and other Tibetans like herself. With a cover image designed by Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, Tibet on Fire is angry and cogent: a clarion call for the world to take action.

Politics and Suicide

Politics and Suicide PDF

Author: Nicholas Michelsen

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-10-08

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 1317375882

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Politics and Suicide argues that whilst the historical lineage of suicidal politics is recognised, the fundamental significance of autodestruction to the political remains under examined. It contends that practices like suicide-bombing do not simply embody a strange or abnormal ‘suicidal’ articulation of the political, but rather, that the existence of suicidal politics tells us something fundamental about the political as such and thinking about political violence more broadly. Recent world events have emphatically shown our need for tools with which to develop better understandings of the politics of suicide. Through the exploration of several arresting case-studies, including the ‘Kamikaze’ bombers of World War Two, Jan Palach’s self-immolation in 1969, Cold War nuclear deterrence, and the suicide-terrorist attacks of 9/11 Michelsen asks how we might talk of a political suicide in any of these contexts. The book charts how political processes ‘go suicidal’, and asks how we might still consider them to be political in such a case. It investigates how suicide can function as ‘politics’. A strong contribution to the fields of philosophy and international relations theory, this work will also be of interest to students and scholars of political theory and terrorism & political violence.