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Implications of the Werther Effect on the Suicide Epidemic in Alaska
Paul F. Hannan
Sacred Heart University
December 21, 2015
Running head: THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 1
Implications of the Werther Effect on the Suicide Epidemic in Alaska
Surely there are happier subjects to write about than Alaska’s suicide epidemic. Yet for
those families dealing with the stark realities of the crisis, there is no escaping the issue. And for
the innumerable Alaskans finding themselves unable, if not unwilling, to stare this issue dead in
the face, it is a problem that will not soon depart; placing our heads in the sand and pretending it
does not exist will only make matters worse. Indeed, if allowed to burgeon unchecked, it may
soon be the case that--as with all epidemics--the effects of this tragedy will strike next at this
reader’s door. Few, if any, among us are immune to this insidious disease, and with the instant
epidemic there is no known inoculation or cure. Nonetheless, I shall posit that, as was the case
with Goethe’s (2012) The Sorrows of Young Werther nearly 250 years ago, as readily as literature
has the power to giveth--to introduce a contagion into society the likes of which have never been
seen before--literature likewise has the power to take, or rather, to extricate that contagion as
well.
Evincing the true cause of this present contagion is no easy task, as even the most notable
of erudites on this issue writes; “The scholar requires all sorts of observations and experiments to
solve even one question...human volition is the most complex of all phenomena” (Durkheim,
2013, p. 148). Yet once the research presented herein has been fully deliberated, the reader is
sure to join with Durkheim (2013) in asserting, as is the case with all suicidal epidemics, it is “a
state of crisis and perturbation not to be prolonged with impunity” (p.369). This proclamation
nevertheless begs the question; what precisely is the solution? Which remedy, if any, constitutes
the “silver bullet” that will, if not reverse this insidious epidemic, provide an effectual bulwark to
stem the tide of its tragic spread?
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 2
I do not possess the breadth of knowledge to provide solutions for every disparate issue
related to the Alaska suicide epidemic, and indeed these are legion. I wrote previously (Hannan,
2012) on the suicide crisis among Alaska Natives, discussing its nexus to Alaska Native
educational experiences conjoined with their forced assimilation into white culture. And to those
assertions I still hold fast. Yet, likened to a diamond with countless facets, there are many facets
to this crisis. And education and assimilation is only one of them or perhaps, at most, two. In
the instant paper I will not approach this issue as an educational philosopher; as a Dewey,
Washington, or James would. Nor will I assess this epidemic as a psychological scientist,
drawing from the schools of Freud, Adler, or Jung, among others. Rather, I shall herein join the
ranks of the learned and, in so many respects, pioneering sociologists who dedicated their lives--
and appreciable cerebral capacities--to this issue; individuals providing a far broader perspective
on this topic than any other discipline could ever hope achieve.
David Lester (1972), an experimental psychologist analyzing more suicidal studies than
anyone else on earth, was the first to conclude: “Sociological theories of suicide have achieved a
measure of complexity and sophistication not equaled by psychological theories” (p. 322). As
the reader will soon discover, this broadened viewpoint afforded by the sociological scientist
offers significant advantages. And this proves particularly true when analyzing the etiology of
suicidal epidemics. For, astonishingly, epidemics of this stripe derive not from the mental illness
of a societies’ citizens individually, but rather from an illness percolating within the society itself.
Suicidal contagions, therefore, find their genesis in sociological breakdowns rather than in
human psychopathology (Durkheim, 2013). Hence, it is the sociological dysfunction within the
society that must first be cured if one should ever hope to stem this suicidal tide of death. And
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 3
who better to cure these societal ills than the very doctors of sociology themselves. Yet before
we delve into this--sorely needed--sociological analysis, it is utterly essential that the reader
engage in a brief perusal of the life and work of perhaps the greatest literary genius of all time,
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. And in particular, his book The Sorrows of Young Werther, first
published in 1774.
Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther
In Werther (2012) Goethe had his hero commit suicide. This novel, some say his first,
was read all throughout Europe. Tragically, people in several countries decided to imitate,
perhaps on a whim, young Werther's manner of death (Phillips, 1974). And this imitation
included not merely Werther’s form of dress, but the very colors of his clothing as well (Phillips,
1974). Nonetheless, this exactitude in suicidal imitation is far from atypical. Indeed, even “In
families where repeated suicides occur, they are often performed almost identically. They take
place not only at the same age but even the same way” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 97). Goethe himself
observed; "My friends...thought that they must transform poetry into reality, imitate a novel like
this in real life and, in any case, shoot themselves; and what occurred at first among a few took
place later among the general public” (Phillips, 1974, p. 340). To provide an indication to the
reader of the full extent of this literary-incited epidemic, fearing similar contagions in their own
communities, authorities banned “the book in several areas, including Italy, Leipzig, and
Copenhagen” (Phillips, 1974, p. 340).
After sifting through reams of available data on the issue of suicide contagions,
Phillips’ (1974) deduced, “the best available explanation of the Werther effect is that it is caused
by suggestion” (p. 350). Which comports with the deductions of the famed and, as many will
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 4
assert, father of sociology, Emile Durkheim. In his seminal work on Suicide published in 1897,
Durkheim asserts, “The contagious power of example is enough to cause it...suicide is very
contagious (2013, p. 96). Durkheim (2013) then proclaims; “No fact is more readily
transmissible by contagion than suicide” (p. 141-42). And surely, writes Durkheim (2013) “No
field exists over which [imitation] has more sway” (p. 133). Lester (1972), after reviewing all of
the suicidal research ostensibly available to man, concluded, “Imitation does appear to play a
role in “epidemics” of suicidal behavior” (p. 187). For instance, Lester (1972) offered, “the use
of plastic bags became popular for a brief time after reports of accidental deaths resulting from
their use appeared in the press” (p. 188).
As for the instant study’s application to Alaska’s suicide crisis, Hezel (1989), who stands
as chief among our modern experts specializing in the etiology of suicidal epidemics, devoted
the greater portion of his life to the study of suicide epidemics in Micronesia, a place where some
of the highest suicide rates in the world are recorded. He queried,
Is it possible that the well-publicized high suicide rates among some Native American
peoples, whose suicide patterns have much in common with the Micronesian patterns
described here, might be rooted in the same causes? In the light of our research findings
on Micronesia, these questions would seem to deserve closer examination (p. 70).
Thus, with Hezel’s blessing (he is, additionally, a Jesuit Priest) we shall tread forward into the
mire of this unhappy subject, without questioning the suitability--or subsequent application--of
these deliberations to the Alaskan epidemic underway.
Few would doubt the assertion that the most effectual means for solving a problem, in
this instance an epidemic, is first to identify, and then aim at whatever constitutes the “bulls eye”
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 5
of the issue. Yet oftentimes we discover, in numerous instances far too late to cure the resulting
ills, not only that we strayed from the bull’s eye’s center, but that we missed the target altogether.
One shall soon discover this analogy to be highly applicable to the Alaskan crisis. For a
significant portion of the theory presented herein involves the assertion that in our present day,
particularly within the Alaska Native community, we define something as a mental illness when
it is clearly not.
In Werther, Goethe offers the following musings on the issue of suicide,
“Human nature,” I continued “has its limits. It is able to endure a certain degree of joy,
sorrow, and pain, but becomes annihilated as soon as this measure is exceeded. The
question, therefore, is, not whether a man is strong or weak, but whether he is able to
endure the measure of his sufferings. The suffering may be moral or physical; and in my
opinion it is just as absurd to call a man a coward who destroys himself, as to call a man a
coward who dies of a malignant fever (p. 31).
In the aforesaid deliberations Goethe likens suicide to the breakdown of the body’s immune
system. To his consternation, perhaps, Goethe would discover that some of these subsequent
musings on the subject--sprinkled throughout the pages of Werther--help evince how utterly
mistaken the foregoing deliberations truly are. For individuals would soon be ending their lives
at something akin to the drop of a hat, or using the physical terminology apropos to Goethe’s
analogy; the stubbing of a toe, a common cold, or even a headache. These later physical
maladies, however, rarely if ever cause death. Thus, Goethe’s analogy proves woefully
inadequate. Yet what could be the cause of this weakening state of spirits? How could a mere
ninety-three page book cause so much misery: 2,000 suicidal deaths in Europe over the mere
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 6
course of a year (Phillips, 1974)? Of far greater concern, this contagion was, as Thomas Carlyle
notes in his introduction to Goethe’s (2012) Werther, not contained within Europe’s borders.
Carlyle asserts, “though the epidemic, after a long course of years, subsided in Germany, it
reappeared with various modifications in other countries, and everywhere abundant traces of its
good and bad effects are still to be discerned” (pp. v-vi). After deliberating the foregoing
circumstances, one query naturally presents: from where are the seeds of this epidemic derived?
I will proffer that these seeds are sown, albeit inadvertently, by the hand of Goethe himself.
Thus, while “no imitation can exist without a model to imitate; no contagion without a central
hearth in which it necessarily displays its maximum tendency,” Durkheim, 2013, p. 133, that
which gave birth to this contagionous fire is not be discovered solely in young Werther’s suicidal
act.
Significantly, in spite of the physical-psychic analogy aforementioned in Werther, Goethe
speaks of suicide elsewhere in the book in a noticeably matter-of-fact manner. Suicide was, for
Goethe (2012), an option often considered, and quite casually at that. Yet what my reader shall
soon discover is that the foregoing triviality conveyed proves highly problematic on a
sociological level--particularly when one considers how astronomically influential Werther was.
For when suicide is presented in a culture as a viable, or perhaps even reasonable, option then the
suicide rate in that culture invariably soars. Nonetheless, there are additional considerations of
culture that lend to this influence as well. For instance, where a society publicly condones the
suicidal act, or quietly acquiesces to the same.
In cultures where there are few if any stigmas attached to the act of suicide some of the
highest self-murder rates in the world are discovered. For instance, on the Philippine Island of
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 7
Palawan, a village known to have the second highest suicide rate in the world, MacDonald
(2003) writes, “No specific stigma or consequence is attached to suicide” (p. 436). He further
observes; “No sanction whatsoever and no definite condemnation are pronounced against the
suicide” (p. 436). Lester (1972), the experimental psychologist cited earlier, observes; “The
Danes condemned suicide less and had the higher suicide rate” (pp. 120-21). This nexus
between communications of condoning and indications of acquiescence to a nation’s rate of
suicide led Emile Durkheim (2013), arguably the father of sociology, to proclaim “the principle
that homicide of one’s self should be reproved must be maintained” (p. 338).
It is one thing to ascertain the origins of a problem, but the challenges may become
altogether different when it comes time to discover its remedy. Surely, a mere refrain from
condoning acts or acquiescent inferences proves insufficient; some form of societal censure is
required. Echoing these sentiments, Durkheim (2013) states, “It remains to determine by what
external tokens this reprobation is to be shown” ( p. 338). He subsequently proffers that at “the
Council of Prague in 563...it was decided that victims of suicide would be ‘honored with no
memorial in the holy sacrifice of the mass, and the singing of psalms should not accompany their
bodies to the grave’” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 327). Thus, for reasons utterly sociological rather than
religious, Durkheim (2013) recommends that Christian churches “refuse the suicide the honors
of a regular burial” (p 371). And with these sentiments I wholeheartedly concur. Concurring as
well is Lester (1972) who, devoid of religious motivations altogether, perceived; “The official
view of the church on suicide may have a strong effect on the suicidal behavior of the people...A
church that has a very negative attitude toward suicide may produce strong social sanctions
against it” (p. 279). In concert with the foregoing deductions, Durkheim concludes, “Where such
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 8
acts are loathed, the feelings they arouse penetrate the recital of them and thus offset rather than
encourage individual inclinations” (2013, p. 141). Hence, when one deliberates the etiology of
suicidal epidemics, he readily discover a nexus between the epidemic itself and a society’s
suicidal sanctions, or lack thereof.
To say that researchers and policy makers alike are terribly concerned about the suicidal
epidemic plaguing Alaska is sure to be an understatement. Shockingly, over the course of merely
sixteen days four suicides occurred in the small fishing village of Hooper Bay, Alaska, a town
with a population less than 1,200 (Boots, 2015). However, rather than being one of the rarest
tragedies ever to confront this state, the foregoing incident is beginning to have an heir of
typicality; contagious events are, in Alaska, gaining a near-ubiquitous status. To top it off, as if
to say in protest “enough is enough,” a week later an Alaska Native jumped off the third story
balcony to his death in the middle of the annual Alaska Federation of Natives convention (Boots,
2015). With this knowledge in hand, one is compelled to echo Durkheim’s (2013) conclusion
that; “All proofs combine therefore to make us consider the enormous increase in the number of
voluntary deaths within a century as a pathological phenomenon becoming daily a greater
menace” (p. 370). And thus to join his query, “By what means shall we try to overcome it?” (p.
370).
The Remedies
Rubinstein (1992) asserts, “Because suicide is the leading cause of death for young men
aged 15-29 in parts of Micronesia and Samoa, there is a continuing need for prevention efforts
that are based upon a well-informed analysis of the social and cultural dynamics of this
problem” (p. 72). Yet the foregoing lines find equal applicability to Alaska. I previously noted
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 9
that literature “hath the power to giveth.” It therefore follows that it has the power to take away.
As in the case of Young Werther, where literature surely evidenced this formidable power to give;
to introduce a suicidal contagion into a society, it likewise has the power to take away; to
extricate that contagion as well. Rubinstein (1992) observed, that “every social thing...tends to
expand in its social environment” (p. 27). Yet he further perceived, “This tendency...often proves
abortive through the competition of rival tendencies” (p. 27). Thus, policy makers need to
introduce a competing, more life affirming, stream of thought into the Alaska Native culture.
And this can be accomplished in a manner likened to Goethe’s--albeit inadvertent--message in
Werther (2012). It can be introduced through literature.
If a society wishes to stem the burgeoning crisis that all suicide epidemics surely are, that
society must do more than merely refrain from condoning suicidal behavior. Indeed, to counter
this negative societal stream of thought, one must infuse that society with a never-ending,
positive, life-affirming message. Thus, my policy recommendation is as follows: To introduce
positive and inspiring literature into the Alaska Native culture that will have the effect of staving
off these disastrous suicidal contagions, if not in the near, then in the coming future. Foremost,
the literature should be targeted at the youth. Admittedly, this will not solve Alaska’s suicide
crisis in every respect. But if not a striking blow it will, nevertheless, create an appreciable dent
in the foundation of a crisis now deemed epidemic. For, likened to leaven in a loaf of bread,
even a modest portion of this positive, life-affirming yeast of positivity will go a long way in
lifting the spirits of a society strewn with pessimistic ills. As is the case with nearly all societal
phenomena, imitation constitutes the chief active ingredient; the pervasive yeast imbuing the
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 10
societal fabric. With this knowledge in hand, a society must utilize this phenomenon of imitation
for its own good, rather than passively allow it to create more ill. Durkheim (2013) observed,
A sort of leveling occurs in the consciousness of different individuals which leads
everyone to think or feel in unison. The name of imitation has very often been given the
whole number of operations resulting in this harmony. It then designates the quality of
the states of consciousness simultaneously felt by a given number of different persons
leading them so to act upon one another or combine among themselves as to produce a
new state (p. 124).
It was, in truth, Durkheim’s chief rival, Gabriel Tarde, who tutored him on this phenomenon of
imitation. Tarde (2014) writes:
At the same time, too, every germ of imitation which may have been secreted in the brain
of any imitator in the form of a new belief or aspiration, of a new idea or faculty, has
been steadily developing in outward signs, in words and acts which, according to the law
of the march from within to without, have penetrated into his entire nervous and muscular
systems (p. 540).
With these aforementioned perceptions in mind, one can see how pervasive imitation truly is.
Once introduced, new concepts are readily infused within that society’s peripheral
psyche. Yet it is the pervasive nature of imitation that causes these new concepts to find
themselves, before long, not only within the societal currents of thought, but soon embedded
within that cultures very fiber. Rubinstein (1992), adding to the wealth of imitation theories
proffered by Tarde and Durkheim, asserted “that the social being, in the degree that he is social,
is essentially imitative, and that imitation plays a role in societies analogous to that of heredity of
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 11
organic life or to that of vibration among inorganic bodies” (p. 19). Significantly, Rubinstein
(1992) observes, “that repetitions are also...self-spreading contagions” (p. 26). Hence, in the
same manner that contagions of negativity, despair, and death self-spread, contagions of life-
affirming positivity can be readily disseminated as well. As the foregoing sociologists noted,
imitation stands high on the list of human behavioral penchants. The chief among them asserts;
“Reciprocal imitation is a highly social phenomenon” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 130). And further,
“The idea of suicide may undoubtedly be communicated by contagion” (Durkheim, 2013, p.
131). Durkheim (2013) continues,
“Pinel tells of a priest hanging himself in the neighborhood of Etampes; some days later
two other [priests] killed themselves and several layman imitated them. When Lord
Castelreagh threw himself into Vesuvius, several of his companions followed his
example. The tree of Timon in Athens has become proverbial” (p. 131).
As Hezel (1989) observes, “In any epidemic the element of contagion serves to explain the rapid
spread of the disease, and that element is undeniably strong in recent Micronesian suicides “(p.
56). And Durkheim (2013) concludes, “Imitative suicides are very numerous. Perhaps no other
phenomenon is more readily contagious” (p. 132). Thus with contagions “it is all-
comprehensive; the new act is a mere echo of the original...Not merely does it repeat, but this
repetition has no causes for existence outside itself, only the total of characteristics which make
us imitative creatures under certain circumstances” (Durkheim, 2013, P. 129). Durkheim (2013)
further observes,
This explanation is made yet more probable by numerous cases of the same character
whereby heredity is not in question and where contagion is the only source of the
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 12
evil...There is the well-known story of the fifteen patients who hung themselves in swift
succession in 1772 from the same hook in a dark passage of the hospital. Once the hook
was removed there was an end to the epidemic. Likewise, at the camp of Boulogne, a
soldier blew out his brains in a sentry-box; in a few days others imitated him in the same
place; but as soon as this was burned, the contagion stopped. All these facts show the
overpowering influence of obsession, because they cease with the disappearance of the
material object which evoked the idea. Thus, when suicides, obviously springing from
one another, all seem to follow the same model, they may fairly be attributed to the same
cause (p. 97).
Keeping this wealth of sociological pathological knowledge in mind, Phillips (1974),
who famously termed these pathological contagions the “Werther effect,” asserts; “The best
available explanation of the “Werther effect” is that it is caused by suggestion” (p. 350). Diving
even deeper into this etiology of imitation, May (2015) posits that “Any behavioral contagion
observed in these settings is likely driven by unconscious, unintentional processes rather than by
purposeful imitation. Perhaps we can “catch” behaviors without even trying.” May (2015)
further observes, “effects of negative contagion were evident up to a week after the initial
exposure, suggesting a fairly long infectious period for negative behaviors.” Hence, contagions
are--rather than mere fiction or fanciful extrapolations--an unquestionably real phenomenon.
And they spread, moreover, like any other infectious disease, achieving lasting effects,
particularly within the first two weeks of the triggering event (May, 2015).
Yet how is it that the many aforementioned trivial events can cause individuals to commit
self-murder, and en masse? Rubinstein (1992), researching the island populations of Micronesia,
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 13
observed; “Very few, if any, of the suicides are occasioned by a family crisis or the death of a
parent. Typically the situations leading to suicide, as described briefly above, are rather minor
rejections and disappointments experienced by adolescents” (p. 58). Hezel (1989), working
among this same populace observed;
The most frequent causes of tension reported in the data are parents' denial of food or
material support to their children, parents' refusal to approve a marriage partner, and
scoldings or other forms of rebuff; but these have always been points of conflict between
Micronesian parents and their children (p. 55).
Commenting on these deleterious contagion-istic effects, Durkheim was the first to observe,
“The incidents of private life which seem the direct inspiration of suicide and are considered its
determining causes are in reality only incidental causes. The individual yields to the slightest
shock of circumstance because the state of society has made him a ready prey to suicide” (2013,
p. 215). Therefore, Durkheim (2013) asserts,“the suicidal tendency can be created by the social
environment” (p. 215). Seeing the societal pathology for what it is, Durkheim (2013) concludes,
when suicides “become chronic, they only prove that the structural characteristics of society have
simultaneously suffered profound changes” (p. 146).
When the act of suicide achieves a common familiarity among one’s fellows, when self-
murder becomes as trite as it is trivial, then its choice is sure to reside among the more
plausible--if not preferred--options under consideration by an individual experiencing even the
slightest degree of external hardship or a scant amount of emotional turmoil within. Yet
everyone who breathes experiences these hardships, and to an appreciably equivalent extent.
And the discouragement accorded to such trials is not psychopathology; it is this very thing we
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 14
call life. Yet when life itself becomes the very source of death, which is commonly the case
when suicide turns commonplace, this causes epidemics to spread--and with deadening speed.
Depression is often “characterized by feelings of hopelessness” (Lester, 1972. p. 271). Yet when
individuals experience depressive bouts stemming from the innumerable, often external, trials
common to man find themselves in an environment where suicide is not merely commonplace,
but burgeoning to epic proportions, they are sure to “perceive suicide as a possible solution to
their problem” (Lester, 1972, p. 271). Shocked at the alarming repercussions foreseen,
Durkheim (2013) presciently insists that suicide contagions constitute “a state of crisis and
perturbation not to be prolonged with impunity” (p.369).
Equally cognizant of the significant fuel a state of triviality provides for suicidal fires,
MacDonald (2003) observed the explosive effect that an atmosphere of suicidal
commonplaceness has on contagions of suicide,
In a small society like the Kulbi population set, every child grows up being exposed to
occurrences of suicide and suicidal behavior amongst a very close circle of kin and
neighbors. The child grows up accustomed to the idea. He sees or hears about elders,
uncles, aunts, older cousins, friend’s parents killing themselves. Even if the “official”
explicit social discourse speaks disparagingly of it, an unspoken and intimate adhesion to
the idea of suicide might prevail in the minds of the young. Thus suicide becomes an
accepted model of behavior, albeit one that may be condemned by explicit social and
cultural rules. Direct imitation and clustering will then look more like “wavelets” that
create a superficial turbulence added to waves propagating themselves through successive
generations (p. 439).
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 15
Yet not only are such contagious streams of suicidality dangerous in and of themselves. As
Rubinstein recently noted “once begun, the suicidal acts seem to have acquired a psychological
contagion of their own. Evidently the idea of suicide has become increasingly commonplace and
compelling, and young children are now acquiring this idea at earlier ages” (MacDonald, 2003,
p. 440, fn 1). MacDonald’s (2003) own observations were as follows:
There was one single feature though that I could not fathom. Ever since I set foot on that
remote corner, I heard constant references to self-inflicted death. I was bewildered by
remarks to the effect that “one would just take a length of rattan, tie it to the roof-beam
and...that’s it!” A number of recent occurrences of suicide were pointed out to me.
Suicide seemed to be an ever-present topic of conversation. People were threatening to
commit suicide and they said it with no apparent levity. They could name victims (p.
421).
Keep in mind that the foregoing observations were made within the very society boasting, as
MacDonald (2003) asserts, the world’s second highest suicide rate. Let the reader take note of
the commonality evidenced in his observations; “He drank,” means “he committed suicide by
drinking poison” (MacDonald, 2003, p. 435). And people referred “to suicide with a gesture
measuring a length of rattan or rope and say ‘I’ll tie it to the roof-beam, and that’s it!’ Frequent
quotes regarding the possibility or risk of suicide are made in public meetings, during litigation,
and in private talks” (MacDonald, 2003, p. 435). In light of the numerous discoveries
aforementioned, the reader can now ascertain the common connection between
commonplaceness and death by suicide. Yet to drive the final nail into the proverbial
commonplace coffin, Rubinstein (1983), respecting the dangers of suicidal triviality, observes;
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 16
Suicide ideation among adolescents appears widespread in certain Micronesian
communities and is popularly expressed in recent songs composed locally and aired on
Micronesian radio stations, and in graffiti adorning T-shits and high school walls. Thus
as suicide grows more frequent in these communities the idea itself acquires a certain
familiarity if not fascination to young men, and the lethality of the act seems to be
trivialized. Especially among some younger boys, the suicide acts appear to have
acquired an experimental almost recreational element (p. 664).
Again, these are observations made within a society possessing the world’s second highest
suicide rate (Rubinstein, 1993). And as shocking as this crisis is, when deliberating applicable
remedies, one must surely keep in mind Durkheim’s perspicacious observation that “The
productive cause of the phenomenon naturally escapes the observer of individuals only; for it lies
outside of individuals” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 324). Hence, we should be looking to find solutions
beyond that field of expertise concerning itself with individual psychopathology. Rather,
because it is a societal pathology we seek to cure, policymakers must seek solutions largely
within the realm of sociology.
Mental Illness is Not the Primary Cause of Contagion Related Suicides
Lester (1972) writes, “It used to be thought that all individuals who attempted or
completed suicide were mentally disturbed and the view still prevails today” (p. 193). Yet
Durkheim (2013) observed; “Suicide may be seen to be for us only a phenomenon resulting from
many different causes and appearing under many different forms; and it is clear that this
phenomenon is not characteristic of disease” (p. 58). Thus, rather than mental illness being the
chief cause of suicidal contagions, Phillips (1974) asserts that “the best available explanation of
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 17
the Werther effect is that it is caused by suggestion” (p. 350). Durkheim (2013) posits, “If
suicide can be shown to be a mental disease with its own characteristics and distinct evolution,
the question is settled; every suicide is a madman” (p. 59). As this is surely not the case, he
consequently provides that “Not every suicide can therefore be considered insane, without doing
violence to language” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 66). And in regard to the abuse of the term “mental
illness” so defined, Durkheim (2013) writes,
The soldier kills himself at the least disappointment, for the most futile reasons, for a
refusal to leave, a reprimand, an unjust punishment, a delay in promotion, a question of
honor, a flush of momentary jealousy or even simply because other suicides have
occurred before his eyes or to his knowledge. Such is really the source of these
phenomena of contagion often observed in armies...it cannot be chance which caused the
appearance in precisely this regiment or that locality of so many person predisposed to
self-homicide by their organic constitution (pp. 238-39).
As for the proposition that such untenable rates of suicide--presenting within such close
proximity--should be attributed to psychopathology, Durkheim (2013) concludes, “Then it may
be attributed not to a blind chance which from all points of the compass assembled in one
barracks or penitentiary a fairly large number of persons all with the same mental affliction, but
to the influence of the common environment in which they live” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 140-41).
Cognizant of the implausibility for such high prevalence rates of mental illness residing--
literally--under one roof, Durkheim (2013) concludes, “the suicidal tendency can be created by
the social environment” (p. 140). Indeed, when pondering the foregoing examples, one may
readily deduce that the probability for so many mentally ill individuals showing up in this close
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 18
proximity solely by chance would represent odds equivalent to that of a stack of cards being
haphazardly disperesed into the air, yet landing in sequential perfection.
Durkheim (2013) asserts that suicides resulting from mental illness “differ from others as
illusions and hallucinations differ from normal perceptions and automatic impulses from
deliberate acts” (p. 66). Significantly, Durkheim (2013) writes, “It is true that there is a gradual
shading from the former to the latter; but if that sufficed to identify them one would also,
generally speaking, have to confuse health with sickness, since the latter is but a variety of the
former” (p. 66). And under these latter circumstances, as Durkheim (2013) suggests,
considerable injury would be inflicted upon the term “mental illness” in the case it were allowed
to be strewn about with such utter and carefree liberality. Indeed, should the term “mental
illness” find permissible application to any one of the innumerable quiddities or peccadillos
known to man, then that very term will lose all effectual meaning in our society. “An
imperfection is not a disease; otherwise disease would have to be postulated everywhere, since
imperfection is everywhere” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 362). It was John Stuart Mill (2002) who, in
his Essays on Liberty, perhaps said it best when he asserted, “Eccentricity has always abounded
when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society
has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which
it contained” (p. 75).
It may be the case that pharmaceutical companies are happy to frame each and every
eccentricity known to man as a psychopathology in need of medication. Yet for those holding no
financial interests in these same corporations, such broad definitions prove unhelpful at best and,
at their wors, utterly strewn with dangers. The human race is in possession of a multifarious
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 19
array of varieties that, when given the liberty to breath, appear atypical to those unfamiliar with
exploring their truest selves. Yet the pressure to conform exerted by this latter group often
causes this uniqueness of personhood to reside beneath a mask of normalcy so-called, created to
survive, adapt, and conform to the expectations of others. Yet it was Steve Jobs (2005) who
famously observed, “Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything
around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can
change it.” Jobs, a man who thought and acted differently than most, went on to create his own
definition of “normal.” However, in a society deeply attached to psychopathological definitions,
if Jobs had not achieved his extraordinary level of success, and somehow stumbled into a
psychotherapist’s office in that state of discouragement common to all who transverse
humanity’s innumerable viscittudes, Job’s would have likely walked out--not only with
medication in hand--with a diagnosis he would thereafter define himself by, perhaps for life. Yet,
“An imperfection is not a disease; otherwise disease would have to be postulated everywhere,
since imperfection is everywhere” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 362).
In concert with the aforementioned observations, Durkheim (2013) asserts, “Even if it
were proved that the average man never kills himself and that only those who do so show certain
anomalies, this would still not justify considering insanity a necessary condition of suicide; for
an insane person is not simply a man who thinks or acts somewhat differently from the average
(p. 66). And surely, writes Simpson in the introduction to Durkheim’s (2013) work ,“From the
standpoint of psychoanalytic psychiatry, it may be said that every individual has what we may
call a suicide-potential, a tendency to self-murder which varies in degree of intensity from
individual to individual” (p.23). The truth to take away from the foregoing deliberations is that a
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 20
far greater percentage of suicides result for reasons other than actual mental illness. Buttressing
the foregoing assertions, Rubinstein--who is arguably the world’s foremost expert in suicidal
epidemics--proclaims that over the course of a human’s lifespan, “the prevalence rate of mental
illness is minimal, therefore, when the suicide-rate is maximal, and prior to that no regular
relation can be found between the variations of the two” (1992, p. 53). And, after comparing
statistics worldwide, Durkheim (2013) concludes that “the countries with the fewest insane have
the most suicides” (p. 73). Thus, when seeking to remedy epidemics of suicide, mental illness is
not the enemy we seek.
Hezel (1987), writing about how young teenage boys customarily hang themselves for
reasons deemed paltry at best, notes the following justification; “one in anger at his mother for
giving away a pet dog, another in shame and terror at injuring an uncle with a rock he had
thrown, and a third for fear he would be beaten for returning home late after watching video” (p.
48). Hezel (1987) asserts,
Even a cursory examination of the case data reveals that Micronesian suicides exhibit an
etiology markedly different from that associated with suicide in the West. There is almost
none of the chronic depression, the vague sense that life is meaningless, or even the
despondency at failure in business or school that seems to play such a large part in
suicides in other parts of the world (p. 48).
Writing in 1897, Durkheim therefore deduced “that there are suicides, and numerous ones at that,
not connected with insanity,” with this latter term equating to the “mental illness” of today (p.
67). Thus, in cases of suicidal contagions at least, rather than mental illness, the chief culprit
resides in the pessimistic undercurrents pervading that particular society. And these currents,
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 21
conjoined to an appreciable extent of triviality accorded to the suicidal act, provides the most
effectual recipe for a catostrophic suicidal disaster (Durkheim, 2013).
As for the prevalence of mental illness among completed suicides, in the course of
Lester’s (1972) analysis of a multitude of extant suicidal studies, he found that “estimates of
different writers ranged from 5 to 94 percent estimates”(Lester, 1972, p. 193). Significantly,
Lester (1972) adds the following caveat to this discovery; “If objective data recorded prior to the
suicidal act is used to diagnose the individual then estimates of mental disturbance are lower,
ranging from 5 to 22 percent” (p. 193). Thus, what likely accounts for these former--higher
ranging--postmortem diagnoses is that the suicidal act at issue “may have been used to arrive at a
diagnosis” of psychopathology for the individual (Lester, 1972, p. 197). Thus, to ensure greater
effectuality in future postmortem diagnoses, forensic psychologists must necessarily “control for
the contamination of diagnosis by the self-destructive behavior” (Lester, 1972, p. 197). Residing
on the low end of this statistical spectrum admittedly, MacDonlad (2013) observed only 1 out of
107 suicides being conclusively the result of mental illness. However, it must be noted that this
statistical observation was made in the midst of one of the most expansive suicidal contagions in
the history of mankind; which only serves to buttress my assertion that the prevalence rate for
mental illness in the midst of suicidal contagions is invariably low. Rising above these
assertions, however substantiated, one fact stands with incontrovertible luster; that instances of
mental illness in the midst of suicidal epidemics are far less than any psychological scientist
heretofore imagined. Thus, in consideration of the aforementioned percentages for suicides all
told, one can plausibly deduce a mental illness prevalence rate of 3 to 15 percent for contagion
related suicides. Yet, undeniably, this stands as news to many.
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 22
Falling short of a true mental illness diagnosis, Lester (1971), when comparing
neuroticism to extroversion, nonetheless “found that students who had attempted or threatened
suicide had higher neuroticism scores than non-suicidal students” (p. 287). However, a penchant
for neurotic introversion--while not constituting the average psychic constitution of humans in
general--consitutes a considerable percentage of our human populace. Thus, although deemed at
“abnormal” by some, neurotocism nevertheless does, and surely must, fall short of a true mental
illness diagnosis. Hypersensitivity leads to multifarious vocations; cloistered monastics, erudite
scholars, and creative artists of the highest rank, to name but a few. Yet, as Durkheim (2013)
adamantly insists, it would do serious violence to the word “illness” to define so sizable a
percentage of our populace as such.
A Paucity of Evidence Supporting a Genetic Genesis
As far as genetic predispositions for suicide go, Lester (1972), after analyzing hundreds,
if not thousands of suicidal studies, concludes, “There appears to be little evidence that inherited
factors play an important part in the determination of suicidal behavior” (p. 323). Although not
exclusively within the genetic purview, he found that in cases of suicides, “Studies of serotonin
have either been negative or contradictory” (Lester, 1972, p. 34). Astonishingly, perhaps,
MacDonald (2003) garners information that strongly militates against an appreciable genetic
influence for suicide, writing:
The Kulbi situation provides us with a unique natural experiment. Unexpectedly, a
section of a rather homogeneous ethnic group, for no apparent reason, displays a
tremendously high and fairly constant rate of suicide, completely unlike the other
neighboring groups. Does it happen elsewhere? Actually it does. The Aguarunas from
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 23
Peru, and the Vaqueiros from northern Spain are strikingly similar in this respect.
Together with small island societies, like the Tikopia, Maenge, and possibly some other
Micronesian societies in the past, they are selfcontained, endogamous, and relatively
isolated populations. They exhibit inordinately high rates of suicide compared to their
closest neighbors and to the surrounding population (p. 438).
Indeed, how could it be that neighbors living in such close proximity possess a level of genetic
distinction that would lead them to possess such ostensible immunity to the suicidal contagion
occurring next door. For surely, over the course of the last hundreds, if not thousands of years,
genetic intermingling occurred. It is therefore implausible to suggest that genetics are
appreciably at work in this evil. Hence, likened to the members of the military aforementioned,
who resided in close proximity and suffered the blow of suicidal contagion as a result, it is the
social environment, and its accompanying pathological ills, which provides the genesis for
epidemics of suicide (Durkheim, 2013). In the same manner that individuals residing in army
bunks suffer not even a hint of the suicidal contagion experienced by their comrades a stone’s
throw away, villages in close proximity can exhibit a patent immunity to this societal disease.
Where is it then? What is the active ingredient residing within this phenomenon that proves as
invasive as it is elusive?
Whatever etiological features suicide contagions possess, one thing stands clear; doctors
of sociology and policy makers alike must not rest until a remedy is discovered. “Sociologically
considered, it is necessary to assuage the suicidal proclivities of whatever social environments
we find inducing and aggravating and perpetuating tendencies toward self-murder among
individuals” (Durkheim 2013, p.31). And with the foregoing sentiments I wholeheartedly
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 24
concur. For, cognizant that contagions more readily flourish when “the current of pessimism has
reached a degree of abnormal intensity which is due to some disturbance of the social organism,”
the guardians of our society--the elected Statesmen--are obligated to take action with whatever
countermeasures evidence effectual prowess (Durkheim, 2013, p. 370).
Policy Considerations
Rubinstein (1992), suggests, “Let us observe that the successful discoveries and
initiatives of the present vaguely determine the direction of those of the future” (p. 30). Thus,
our positive actions today can beneficially impact the societal health of the future. In spite of the
deliberations regarding societal streams of pessimism and pervasive currents of negativity
heretofore discussed, Rubinstein (1992) notes, significantly, that “In historical importance...no
mental interference equals that of a desire and a belief” (pp. 41-41). Thus, it is this optimistic
current that proves inherently stronger, and even more pervasive, than the streams of pessimism
aforementioned. As Tarde (2014) suggests, “otherwise society would not endure. For the same
reason, and in spite of frequent epidemics of panic, hope is certainly more catching than
terror” (2014, p. 284). And just as “the scattered individual forces which are inherent in the
innumerable beings composing the environment where these forms propagate themselves, have
taken a common direction,” we can--indeed we must--take expeditious and aggressive
action today that will positively determine the direction of those forces in the many years to
come (Rubinstein, 1992, pp. 27-28). In the case of Alaska’s Native community, this is a
direction that beckons, if not indeed shouts: be reversed. For the truth is patent that contagions
more readily occur when “the current of pessimism has reached a degree of abnormal intensity
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 25
which is due to some disturbance of the social organism” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 370). Which may,
for instance, be caused by a loss of Native subsistence rights possessed for eons heretofore.
Policy Recommendation. Durkheim (2013) writes, “A child’s taste is formed as he
comes into contact with the monuments of national taste bequeathed by previous generations” (p.
314). Thus, policy makers must take actions today that will ensure the tastes bequeathed to
future generations is the taste of life, rather than suicidal death. Yet to accomplish this, we must
find a way to interject a current of hope within all societies suffering from these terrible and
formidable suicidal epidemics. As Durkheim (2013) asserts,
The only way...is to act directly on the current of pessimism, to lead it back to its normal
bed and confine it there, to relieve most consciences of its influences and confine it there.
Once they have recovered their moral equilibrium they will act appropriately against
whatever offends them (p. 372).
Yet what will constitute that psychic hook; the very element that one can attach these
positive interjected currents to? Durkheim (2013), searching for the same, deliberates thus:
What does oblige them, then? The respect for custom, the authority of past generations?
On that case the cause of the continuity is no longer individuals serving as vehicles for
ideas or practices, but the highly collective state of mind which causes ancestors to be
regarded with an especial respect among a certain people...And this state of mind is
imposed on individuals. Like the tendency to suicide, this state of mind in a given
society even has a definite intensity, depending on the greater or lesser degree with which
individuals conform to tradition (p. 308, fn. 7).
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 26
With the aforesaid, there is the suggestion of tapping into that ancestral current of respect, and it
may in fact be this very stream of thought that constitutes the most effectual hammer to drive the
nail at issue. Durkheim (2013) asserts, “One is detached from life because, seeing no goal to
which he may attach himself, he feels himself useless and purposeless” (p. 225). Significantly,
Durkheim (2013) further proffers:
He must feel himself more solidarity with a collective existence which precedes him in
time, which survives him, and which encompasses him at all points. If this occurs, he
will no longer find the only aim of his conduct in himself, and, understanding that he is
the instrument of a purpose greater than himself, he will see that he is not without
significance. Life will resume meaning in his eyes, because it will recover its natural aim
and orientation (pp. 373-74).
In concert with the foregoing deliberations, a goal possessing considerable potentiality
for imbuing Alaska Natives with a life-giving stream of positivity and purpose is the following;
to carry the torch of tradition onward, for the many generations to come. And the realization that
their ancestors are not merely observing their progress in a state of utter passivity but, rather,
actively rooting them on, assisting them with interventions wherever possible. It is this
realization, this happy current of thought, that will greatly assist in infusing this culture with an
appreciable degree of suicidal immunity.
To provide but a few examples, assertions similar to the following should be utilized:
“Your ancestors are cheering you on, assisting you at every turn. Make certain not to disappoint
them,” or, “Carry on and you will celebrate with these ancestors in paradise,” and “Your
ancestors will honor you and your posterity for sticking with the fight, for your courage in
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 27
persevering through all of life’s challenges. For this you will be deemed worthy to receive the
crown of life.” And whatever else constitutes a desirable reward within Native culture. Once
implemented, “The bond that unites them with the common cause attaches them to life and the
lofty goal they envisage prevents their feeling personal troubles so deeply” (Durkheim, 2013, p.
210). This unifying bond can be forged by the realization that their ancestors live eternally and
thus continue to cheer them on, while those still in the flesh valiantly seek to overcome the
necessary and invariable obstacles placed in their path--challenges to test their mettle. Yet,
through it all, their ancestors--and the providence of God--are helping them to prevail by
constant acts of divinely orchestrated intervention. Yet it remains the responsibility of those in
the midst of these trials to persevere. Hence they must not lose faith.
A perspective like the foregoing one, when imbued within Native culture, will provide
individuals with the necessary fuel to remain in the fight of life, particularly when the going gets
rough. As M. Scott Peck (2004) famously quipped, “Life is Difficult!” Indeed, “Life is said to be
intolerable unless some reason for existing is involved, some purpose justifying life’s
trials” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 210). The realization of an individual’s connectivity--with the
ancestors of the past and the posterity of the future, will provide that most essential impetus.
The Infusion of Positive Literature. To ameliorate these epidemics of suicide, I
propose that we, like Goethe, introduce literature into whichever society happens to be, however
inadvertantly, courting such societal ills. Thus, rather than to the masses in general, which may
bring little effect, social scientists and policy makers must target the society suffering the brunt
of the suicidal epidemic’s effects. And, as the greatest effects are being felt among Alaska
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 28
Native villages and communities, these societal areas will warrant the uttermost concentration.
Thus, I shall direct my policy recommendations there.
While policy recommendations involving the infusion of positive literature into a
particular society are undoubtedly novel, Lester (1972) provides that numerous researchers,
including; “McClelland (1961), Rudin (1968), Lester (1968), and Barret and Franke (1970),”
individuals making the study of suicide their very lives’ work, believed that an appreciable nexus
existed between childrens’ stories and the suicide rate suffered by the readers or listeners of these
stories several years later. Evidencing the extent of their convictions, they compared children’s
stories from no less than seventeen nations (Lester, 1972, p. 268). And while “Barret and Frank
concluded that national psychological motives [evidenced by the youthful literature of that
nation] were not associated with death rates cross-nationally” they did leave room for the impact
of literature on a smaller societal scale, for instance, among villages (Lester, 1972, p. 268).
In light of these discoveries, and considering the multifarious issues presented heretofore,
I propose that we introduce literature specifically engineered to counter the present suicidal
contagion’s societally deleterious effects within the Alaska Native community. This can be
achieved through the creation of writings that specifically address the relevant societal
challenges at issue, utilizing the best Alaska Native writers and artists, in concert with other
Native American authors and illustrators and, if necessary, non-native artists and writers as well.
The Writings. The writings will include stories that specifically address the issues
undermining the Native Alaska’s societal vitality. In these stories life will be deemed a sacred
and honored trust, the loss of which is to be ranked among Native culture's greatest tragedies.
The GOAL in life will be to persevere, refusing to turn one’s back on life, so that individuals can
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 29
fulfill an honored task; the mission of carrying the sacred torch of that Native culture’s tradition
one generation further, helping to ensure that one’s village or tribe’s survival will, in the future,
be secured.
Ancestral Cheerleaders. The ancestors of these individuals living in the physical world
today are observing their every move. The elders are surely watching. Yet what proves more
significant is the fact that they are cheering thier own related members of the Native community
on and thus inspiring them. They are assisting them with divine encouragement and providential
interventions at each and every turn. Indeed, the elders now reside with God, and therefore have
great powers to intervene, helping to ensure not only their posterity’s continuance, but their
entire Native culture’s survival as well. These stories must, and will be filled with lessons
illustrating the value of perseverance, the sacredness of life, and the duty one has to carry the
torch of their tradition onward into the future.
Of perhaps the greatest significance, efforts put forth by these participants in the flesh
will help keep alive the Alaskan Native lineage for eons to come. Yet, rather than merely Alaska
Native specific goals, these stories will, additionally, convey universal objectives. They will
inform how the entire world’s future depends on the success of these Alaskan Native warriors;
that our world will fail to exist without the tremendous equilibrium, spirituality, and wisdom
provided by this world’s indigenous people’s. They are, being among the most spiritually
minded people inhabiting the earth, instrumental for the success of God’s divine plan for the
world. Indeed, there will be no race of people, no wisdom of the ages, capable of filling the
eternal void left behind if the Alaska Native lineage is lost. Thus, the Alaska Native peoples
must, with the help of their ancestors, and the loving and willing intervention of God, persevere
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 30
in the fight, and carry on to live another day, month, year, decade, century, eon. Yet they must
not do so solely for their own personal benefit--to receive a great crown of reward in return.
They must act and live in this way to ensure that their own posterity will--rather than being
saddled with shame--speak with only the highest regard and exuberant pride of their members’
heroic lives; so that one’s posterity will retell the astonishing accomplishments of those who
chose to live bravely, daringly, and fully in this world. Those persevering courageously to the
end will be honored and celebrated throughout the ages to come. Of tremendous significance,
this literature will, in addition to conveying the greatest extent of honor and respect for native
culture, religious practices, and language, hold Native Alaskan harvesting and subsistence rights
in uttermost regard.
Conclusion
Like all suicide epidemics of the past, the chief active element is not mental illness. It is,
rather, the inherent human proclivity to imitate. And what does an individual in society imitate?
She imitates the very society that surrounds her, whether this be steeped in a pathological
sickness or imbued with health and enlivening vigor. Yet we must not acquiesce to a passive
observation while innumerable individuals discard their very lives as readily as one would a
handkerchief. Alaska’s suicide epidemic is a circumstance that, rather than suggests, screams for
remedy. The gatekeepers of our society, the very Statesmen in our midst, people entrusted by the
citizens--Alaska Natives included--to secure the common good, must necessarily take action! As
this paper has made patent, there are unequivocal remedies that exist. Thus, all that remains
necessary is the willingness to pick up these finely crafted weapons of societal warfare and put
them to ready use. In doing so, we can rest assured that the target is, for once, the correct one.
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 31
Statesmen, take heed of the foregoing deliberations. Employ all the effectual stratagems you can
muster against this most formidable societal enemy, a beast that will soon become
unmanageable. For if we do not, rather than beast, it will burgeon into one of society’s most
dreadful nemesis.
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 32
References
Boots, M.T. (2015). After public death at AFN convention, only hints of the story of man who
jumped. Alaska Dispatch News. Retreived from: http://www.adn.com/article/20151018/
after-public-death-afn-convention-only-hints-story-man-who-jumped
Demer, L. (2015). Troopers report a fourth suicide in Hooper Bay. Alaska Dispatch News.
Retrieved from: http://www.adn.com/article/20151011/troopers-report-fourth-suicide-
hooper-bay
Durkheim, E. (2013). Suicide: A Study in Sociology. Dallas, TX: Snowball Publishing
Goethe, J.W. (2012). The Sorrows of Young Werther. New York, NY: Dover Thrift Editions
Hannan, P. F. (2012). Psychology for social change: The Alaska suicide crisis.
Hezel, F. X. (1989). Suicide and the Micronesian Family. The Contemporary Pacific, Spring/
Fall, 43-74
Jobs, S. (2005). Steve Jobs Stanford commencement address 2005. Stanford.edu. Retreived
from: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html
Lester, D. (1972). Why People Kill Themselves: A Summary of Research Findings on Suicidal
Behavior. Springfield, Il: Thomas C. Thomas Publishers
MacDonald, C., J-H (2003). Urug. An Anthropological Investigation on Suicide in Palawan,
Philippines. Southeast Asian Studies, 40(4).
May, C. (2015). Rude behavior spreads like a disease: Scientists study the contagion of
obnoxiousness. Scientific American Mind. Retrieved from: http://
www.scientificamerican.com/article/rude-behavior-spreads-like-a-disease/?
WT.mc_id=SA_WR_20151125
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Mill, J.S. (2002). The Basic Writings of John Stuart Mill: On Liberty, the Subjection of Women
and Utilitarianism. New York, N.Y.: Modern Library Classics
Peck, M.S. (2004). The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and
Spiritual Growth. New York, NY: Touchstone Publishing
Phillips, D. (1974) The influence of suggestion on suicide: Substantive and theoretical
implications of the Werther effect. American Sociological Review, 39 (3), 340-354.
Rubinstein, D. H. (1983). Epidemic suicide among Micronesian adolescence. Social Science &
Medicine, 17(10), 657–665
Rubinstein, D. H. (1992). Suicide in Micronesia and Samoa: A critique of explanations.
Micronesian Area Research Center University of Guam. Pacific Studies, 15. Retrieved
from:https://ojs.lib.byu.edu/spc/index.php/PacificStudies/article/viewFile/9745/9394
Tarde, G. (2014). The Laws of Imitation. Nashville, TN: Patterson Press
THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 34

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Implications the werther effect in alaska by paul hannan

  • 1. Implications of the Werther Effect on the Suicide Epidemic in Alaska Paul F. Hannan Sacred Heart University December 21, 2015 Running head: THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 1
  • 2. Implications of the Werther Effect on the Suicide Epidemic in Alaska Surely there are happier subjects to write about than Alaska’s suicide epidemic. Yet for those families dealing with the stark realities of the crisis, there is no escaping the issue. And for the innumerable Alaskans finding themselves unable, if not unwilling, to stare this issue dead in the face, it is a problem that will not soon depart; placing our heads in the sand and pretending it does not exist will only make matters worse. Indeed, if allowed to burgeon unchecked, it may soon be the case that--as with all epidemics--the effects of this tragedy will strike next at this reader’s door. Few, if any, among us are immune to this insidious disease, and with the instant epidemic there is no known inoculation or cure. Nonetheless, I shall posit that, as was the case with Goethe’s (2012) The Sorrows of Young Werther nearly 250 years ago, as readily as literature has the power to giveth--to introduce a contagion into society the likes of which have never been seen before--literature likewise has the power to take, or rather, to extricate that contagion as well. Evincing the true cause of this present contagion is no easy task, as even the most notable of erudites on this issue writes; “The scholar requires all sorts of observations and experiments to solve even one question...human volition is the most complex of all phenomena” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 148). Yet once the research presented herein has been fully deliberated, the reader is sure to join with Durkheim (2013) in asserting, as is the case with all suicidal epidemics, it is “a state of crisis and perturbation not to be prolonged with impunity” (p.369). This proclamation nevertheless begs the question; what precisely is the solution? Which remedy, if any, constitutes the “silver bullet” that will, if not reverse this insidious epidemic, provide an effectual bulwark to stem the tide of its tragic spread? THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 2
  • 3. I do not possess the breadth of knowledge to provide solutions for every disparate issue related to the Alaska suicide epidemic, and indeed these are legion. I wrote previously (Hannan, 2012) on the suicide crisis among Alaska Natives, discussing its nexus to Alaska Native educational experiences conjoined with their forced assimilation into white culture. And to those assertions I still hold fast. Yet, likened to a diamond with countless facets, there are many facets to this crisis. And education and assimilation is only one of them or perhaps, at most, two. In the instant paper I will not approach this issue as an educational philosopher; as a Dewey, Washington, or James would. Nor will I assess this epidemic as a psychological scientist, drawing from the schools of Freud, Adler, or Jung, among others. Rather, I shall herein join the ranks of the learned and, in so many respects, pioneering sociologists who dedicated their lives-- and appreciable cerebral capacities--to this issue; individuals providing a far broader perspective on this topic than any other discipline could ever hope achieve. David Lester (1972), an experimental psychologist analyzing more suicidal studies than anyone else on earth, was the first to conclude: “Sociological theories of suicide have achieved a measure of complexity and sophistication not equaled by psychological theories” (p. 322). As the reader will soon discover, this broadened viewpoint afforded by the sociological scientist offers significant advantages. And this proves particularly true when analyzing the etiology of suicidal epidemics. For, astonishingly, epidemics of this stripe derive not from the mental illness of a societies’ citizens individually, but rather from an illness percolating within the society itself. Suicidal contagions, therefore, find their genesis in sociological breakdowns rather than in human psychopathology (Durkheim, 2013). Hence, it is the sociological dysfunction within the society that must first be cured if one should ever hope to stem this suicidal tide of death. And THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 3
  • 4. who better to cure these societal ills than the very doctors of sociology themselves. Yet before we delve into this--sorely needed--sociological analysis, it is utterly essential that the reader engage in a brief perusal of the life and work of perhaps the greatest literary genius of all time, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. And in particular, his book The Sorrows of Young Werther, first published in 1774. Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther In Werther (2012) Goethe had his hero commit suicide. This novel, some say his first, was read all throughout Europe. Tragically, people in several countries decided to imitate, perhaps on a whim, young Werther's manner of death (Phillips, 1974). And this imitation included not merely Werther’s form of dress, but the very colors of his clothing as well (Phillips, 1974). Nonetheless, this exactitude in suicidal imitation is far from atypical. Indeed, even “In families where repeated suicides occur, they are often performed almost identically. They take place not only at the same age but even the same way” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 97). Goethe himself observed; "My friends...thought that they must transform poetry into reality, imitate a novel like this in real life and, in any case, shoot themselves; and what occurred at first among a few took place later among the general public” (Phillips, 1974, p. 340). To provide an indication to the reader of the full extent of this literary-incited epidemic, fearing similar contagions in their own communities, authorities banned “the book in several areas, including Italy, Leipzig, and Copenhagen” (Phillips, 1974, p. 340). After sifting through reams of available data on the issue of suicide contagions, Phillips’ (1974) deduced, “the best available explanation of the Werther effect is that it is caused by suggestion” (p. 350). Which comports with the deductions of the famed and, as many will THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 4
  • 5. assert, father of sociology, Emile Durkheim. In his seminal work on Suicide published in 1897, Durkheim asserts, “The contagious power of example is enough to cause it...suicide is very contagious (2013, p. 96). Durkheim (2013) then proclaims; “No fact is more readily transmissible by contagion than suicide” (p. 141-42). And surely, writes Durkheim (2013) “No field exists over which [imitation] has more sway” (p. 133). Lester (1972), after reviewing all of the suicidal research ostensibly available to man, concluded, “Imitation does appear to play a role in “epidemics” of suicidal behavior” (p. 187). For instance, Lester (1972) offered, “the use of plastic bags became popular for a brief time after reports of accidental deaths resulting from their use appeared in the press” (p. 188). As for the instant study’s application to Alaska’s suicide crisis, Hezel (1989), who stands as chief among our modern experts specializing in the etiology of suicidal epidemics, devoted the greater portion of his life to the study of suicide epidemics in Micronesia, a place where some of the highest suicide rates in the world are recorded. He queried, Is it possible that the well-publicized high suicide rates among some Native American peoples, whose suicide patterns have much in common with the Micronesian patterns described here, might be rooted in the same causes? In the light of our research findings on Micronesia, these questions would seem to deserve closer examination (p. 70). Thus, with Hezel’s blessing (he is, additionally, a Jesuit Priest) we shall tread forward into the mire of this unhappy subject, without questioning the suitability--or subsequent application--of these deliberations to the Alaskan epidemic underway. Few would doubt the assertion that the most effectual means for solving a problem, in this instance an epidemic, is first to identify, and then aim at whatever constitutes the “bulls eye” THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 5
  • 6. of the issue. Yet oftentimes we discover, in numerous instances far too late to cure the resulting ills, not only that we strayed from the bull’s eye’s center, but that we missed the target altogether. One shall soon discover this analogy to be highly applicable to the Alaskan crisis. For a significant portion of the theory presented herein involves the assertion that in our present day, particularly within the Alaska Native community, we define something as a mental illness when it is clearly not. In Werther, Goethe offers the following musings on the issue of suicide, “Human nature,” I continued “has its limits. It is able to endure a certain degree of joy, sorrow, and pain, but becomes annihilated as soon as this measure is exceeded. The question, therefore, is, not whether a man is strong or weak, but whether he is able to endure the measure of his sufferings. The suffering may be moral or physical; and in my opinion it is just as absurd to call a man a coward who destroys himself, as to call a man a coward who dies of a malignant fever (p. 31). In the aforesaid deliberations Goethe likens suicide to the breakdown of the body’s immune system. To his consternation, perhaps, Goethe would discover that some of these subsequent musings on the subject--sprinkled throughout the pages of Werther--help evince how utterly mistaken the foregoing deliberations truly are. For individuals would soon be ending their lives at something akin to the drop of a hat, or using the physical terminology apropos to Goethe’s analogy; the stubbing of a toe, a common cold, or even a headache. These later physical maladies, however, rarely if ever cause death. Thus, Goethe’s analogy proves woefully inadequate. Yet what could be the cause of this weakening state of spirits? How could a mere ninety-three page book cause so much misery: 2,000 suicidal deaths in Europe over the mere THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 6
  • 7. course of a year (Phillips, 1974)? Of far greater concern, this contagion was, as Thomas Carlyle notes in his introduction to Goethe’s (2012) Werther, not contained within Europe’s borders. Carlyle asserts, “though the epidemic, after a long course of years, subsided in Germany, it reappeared with various modifications in other countries, and everywhere abundant traces of its good and bad effects are still to be discerned” (pp. v-vi). After deliberating the foregoing circumstances, one query naturally presents: from where are the seeds of this epidemic derived? I will proffer that these seeds are sown, albeit inadvertently, by the hand of Goethe himself. Thus, while “no imitation can exist without a model to imitate; no contagion without a central hearth in which it necessarily displays its maximum tendency,” Durkheim, 2013, p. 133, that which gave birth to this contagionous fire is not be discovered solely in young Werther’s suicidal act. Significantly, in spite of the physical-psychic analogy aforementioned in Werther, Goethe speaks of suicide elsewhere in the book in a noticeably matter-of-fact manner. Suicide was, for Goethe (2012), an option often considered, and quite casually at that. Yet what my reader shall soon discover is that the foregoing triviality conveyed proves highly problematic on a sociological level--particularly when one considers how astronomically influential Werther was. For when suicide is presented in a culture as a viable, or perhaps even reasonable, option then the suicide rate in that culture invariably soars. Nonetheless, there are additional considerations of culture that lend to this influence as well. For instance, where a society publicly condones the suicidal act, or quietly acquiesces to the same. In cultures where there are few if any stigmas attached to the act of suicide some of the highest self-murder rates in the world are discovered. For instance, on the Philippine Island of THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 7
  • 8. Palawan, a village known to have the second highest suicide rate in the world, MacDonald (2003) writes, “No specific stigma or consequence is attached to suicide” (p. 436). He further observes; “No sanction whatsoever and no definite condemnation are pronounced against the suicide” (p. 436). Lester (1972), the experimental psychologist cited earlier, observes; “The Danes condemned suicide less and had the higher suicide rate” (pp. 120-21). This nexus between communications of condoning and indications of acquiescence to a nation’s rate of suicide led Emile Durkheim (2013), arguably the father of sociology, to proclaim “the principle that homicide of one’s self should be reproved must be maintained” (p. 338). It is one thing to ascertain the origins of a problem, but the challenges may become altogether different when it comes time to discover its remedy. Surely, a mere refrain from condoning acts or acquiescent inferences proves insufficient; some form of societal censure is required. Echoing these sentiments, Durkheim (2013) states, “It remains to determine by what external tokens this reprobation is to be shown” ( p. 338). He subsequently proffers that at “the Council of Prague in 563...it was decided that victims of suicide would be ‘honored with no memorial in the holy sacrifice of the mass, and the singing of psalms should not accompany their bodies to the grave’” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 327). Thus, for reasons utterly sociological rather than religious, Durkheim (2013) recommends that Christian churches “refuse the suicide the honors of a regular burial” (p 371). And with these sentiments I wholeheartedly concur. Concurring as well is Lester (1972) who, devoid of religious motivations altogether, perceived; “The official view of the church on suicide may have a strong effect on the suicidal behavior of the people...A church that has a very negative attitude toward suicide may produce strong social sanctions against it” (p. 279). In concert with the foregoing deductions, Durkheim concludes, “Where such THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 8
  • 9. acts are loathed, the feelings they arouse penetrate the recital of them and thus offset rather than encourage individual inclinations” (2013, p. 141). Hence, when one deliberates the etiology of suicidal epidemics, he readily discover a nexus between the epidemic itself and a society’s suicidal sanctions, or lack thereof. To say that researchers and policy makers alike are terribly concerned about the suicidal epidemic plaguing Alaska is sure to be an understatement. Shockingly, over the course of merely sixteen days four suicides occurred in the small fishing village of Hooper Bay, Alaska, a town with a population less than 1,200 (Boots, 2015). However, rather than being one of the rarest tragedies ever to confront this state, the foregoing incident is beginning to have an heir of typicality; contagious events are, in Alaska, gaining a near-ubiquitous status. To top it off, as if to say in protest “enough is enough,” a week later an Alaska Native jumped off the third story balcony to his death in the middle of the annual Alaska Federation of Natives convention (Boots, 2015). With this knowledge in hand, one is compelled to echo Durkheim’s (2013) conclusion that; “All proofs combine therefore to make us consider the enormous increase in the number of voluntary deaths within a century as a pathological phenomenon becoming daily a greater menace” (p. 370). And thus to join his query, “By what means shall we try to overcome it?” (p. 370). The Remedies Rubinstein (1992) asserts, “Because suicide is the leading cause of death for young men aged 15-29 in parts of Micronesia and Samoa, there is a continuing need for prevention efforts that are based upon a well-informed analysis of the social and cultural dynamics of this problem” (p. 72). Yet the foregoing lines find equal applicability to Alaska. I previously noted THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 9
  • 10. that literature “hath the power to giveth.” It therefore follows that it has the power to take away. As in the case of Young Werther, where literature surely evidenced this formidable power to give; to introduce a suicidal contagion into a society, it likewise has the power to take away; to extricate that contagion as well. Rubinstein (1992) observed, that “every social thing...tends to expand in its social environment” (p. 27). Yet he further perceived, “This tendency...often proves abortive through the competition of rival tendencies” (p. 27). Thus, policy makers need to introduce a competing, more life affirming, stream of thought into the Alaska Native culture. And this can be accomplished in a manner likened to Goethe’s--albeit inadvertent--message in Werther (2012). It can be introduced through literature. If a society wishes to stem the burgeoning crisis that all suicide epidemics surely are, that society must do more than merely refrain from condoning suicidal behavior. Indeed, to counter this negative societal stream of thought, one must infuse that society with a never-ending, positive, life-affirming message. Thus, my policy recommendation is as follows: To introduce positive and inspiring literature into the Alaska Native culture that will have the effect of staving off these disastrous suicidal contagions, if not in the near, then in the coming future. Foremost, the literature should be targeted at the youth. Admittedly, this will not solve Alaska’s suicide crisis in every respect. But if not a striking blow it will, nevertheless, create an appreciable dent in the foundation of a crisis now deemed epidemic. For, likened to leaven in a loaf of bread, even a modest portion of this positive, life-affirming yeast of positivity will go a long way in lifting the spirits of a society strewn with pessimistic ills. As is the case with nearly all societal phenomena, imitation constitutes the chief active ingredient; the pervasive yeast imbuing the THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 10
  • 11. societal fabric. With this knowledge in hand, a society must utilize this phenomenon of imitation for its own good, rather than passively allow it to create more ill. Durkheim (2013) observed, A sort of leveling occurs in the consciousness of different individuals which leads everyone to think or feel in unison. The name of imitation has very often been given the whole number of operations resulting in this harmony. It then designates the quality of the states of consciousness simultaneously felt by a given number of different persons leading them so to act upon one another or combine among themselves as to produce a new state (p. 124). It was, in truth, Durkheim’s chief rival, Gabriel Tarde, who tutored him on this phenomenon of imitation. Tarde (2014) writes: At the same time, too, every germ of imitation which may have been secreted in the brain of any imitator in the form of a new belief or aspiration, of a new idea or faculty, has been steadily developing in outward signs, in words and acts which, according to the law of the march from within to without, have penetrated into his entire nervous and muscular systems (p. 540). With these aforementioned perceptions in mind, one can see how pervasive imitation truly is. Once introduced, new concepts are readily infused within that society’s peripheral psyche. Yet it is the pervasive nature of imitation that causes these new concepts to find themselves, before long, not only within the societal currents of thought, but soon embedded within that cultures very fiber. Rubinstein (1992), adding to the wealth of imitation theories proffered by Tarde and Durkheim, asserted “that the social being, in the degree that he is social, is essentially imitative, and that imitation plays a role in societies analogous to that of heredity of THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 11
  • 12. organic life or to that of vibration among inorganic bodies” (p. 19). Significantly, Rubinstein (1992) observes, “that repetitions are also...self-spreading contagions” (p. 26). Hence, in the same manner that contagions of negativity, despair, and death self-spread, contagions of life- affirming positivity can be readily disseminated as well. As the foregoing sociologists noted, imitation stands high on the list of human behavioral penchants. The chief among them asserts; “Reciprocal imitation is a highly social phenomenon” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 130). And further, “The idea of suicide may undoubtedly be communicated by contagion” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 131). Durkheim (2013) continues, “Pinel tells of a priest hanging himself in the neighborhood of Etampes; some days later two other [priests] killed themselves and several layman imitated them. When Lord Castelreagh threw himself into Vesuvius, several of his companions followed his example. The tree of Timon in Athens has become proverbial” (p. 131). As Hezel (1989) observes, “In any epidemic the element of contagion serves to explain the rapid spread of the disease, and that element is undeniably strong in recent Micronesian suicides “(p. 56). And Durkheim (2013) concludes, “Imitative suicides are very numerous. Perhaps no other phenomenon is more readily contagious” (p. 132). Thus with contagions “it is all- comprehensive; the new act is a mere echo of the original...Not merely does it repeat, but this repetition has no causes for existence outside itself, only the total of characteristics which make us imitative creatures under certain circumstances” (Durkheim, 2013, P. 129). Durkheim (2013) further observes, This explanation is made yet more probable by numerous cases of the same character whereby heredity is not in question and where contagion is the only source of the THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 12
  • 13. evil...There is the well-known story of the fifteen patients who hung themselves in swift succession in 1772 from the same hook in a dark passage of the hospital. Once the hook was removed there was an end to the epidemic. Likewise, at the camp of Boulogne, a soldier blew out his brains in a sentry-box; in a few days others imitated him in the same place; but as soon as this was burned, the contagion stopped. All these facts show the overpowering influence of obsession, because they cease with the disappearance of the material object which evoked the idea. Thus, when suicides, obviously springing from one another, all seem to follow the same model, they may fairly be attributed to the same cause (p. 97). Keeping this wealth of sociological pathological knowledge in mind, Phillips (1974), who famously termed these pathological contagions the “Werther effect,” asserts; “The best available explanation of the “Werther effect” is that it is caused by suggestion” (p. 350). Diving even deeper into this etiology of imitation, May (2015) posits that “Any behavioral contagion observed in these settings is likely driven by unconscious, unintentional processes rather than by purposeful imitation. Perhaps we can “catch” behaviors without even trying.” May (2015) further observes, “effects of negative contagion were evident up to a week after the initial exposure, suggesting a fairly long infectious period for negative behaviors.” Hence, contagions are--rather than mere fiction or fanciful extrapolations--an unquestionably real phenomenon. And they spread, moreover, like any other infectious disease, achieving lasting effects, particularly within the first two weeks of the triggering event (May, 2015). Yet how is it that the many aforementioned trivial events can cause individuals to commit self-murder, and en masse? Rubinstein (1992), researching the island populations of Micronesia, THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 13
  • 14. observed; “Very few, if any, of the suicides are occasioned by a family crisis or the death of a parent. Typically the situations leading to suicide, as described briefly above, are rather minor rejections and disappointments experienced by adolescents” (p. 58). Hezel (1989), working among this same populace observed; The most frequent causes of tension reported in the data are parents' denial of food or material support to their children, parents' refusal to approve a marriage partner, and scoldings or other forms of rebuff; but these have always been points of conflict between Micronesian parents and their children (p. 55). Commenting on these deleterious contagion-istic effects, Durkheim was the first to observe, “The incidents of private life which seem the direct inspiration of suicide and are considered its determining causes are in reality only incidental causes. The individual yields to the slightest shock of circumstance because the state of society has made him a ready prey to suicide” (2013, p. 215). Therefore, Durkheim (2013) asserts,“the suicidal tendency can be created by the social environment” (p. 215). Seeing the societal pathology for what it is, Durkheim (2013) concludes, when suicides “become chronic, they only prove that the structural characteristics of society have simultaneously suffered profound changes” (p. 146). When the act of suicide achieves a common familiarity among one’s fellows, when self- murder becomes as trite as it is trivial, then its choice is sure to reside among the more plausible--if not preferred--options under consideration by an individual experiencing even the slightest degree of external hardship or a scant amount of emotional turmoil within. Yet everyone who breathes experiences these hardships, and to an appreciably equivalent extent. And the discouragement accorded to such trials is not psychopathology; it is this very thing we THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 14
  • 15. call life. Yet when life itself becomes the very source of death, which is commonly the case when suicide turns commonplace, this causes epidemics to spread--and with deadening speed. Depression is often “characterized by feelings of hopelessness” (Lester, 1972. p. 271). Yet when individuals experience depressive bouts stemming from the innumerable, often external, trials common to man find themselves in an environment where suicide is not merely commonplace, but burgeoning to epic proportions, they are sure to “perceive suicide as a possible solution to their problem” (Lester, 1972, p. 271). Shocked at the alarming repercussions foreseen, Durkheim (2013) presciently insists that suicide contagions constitute “a state of crisis and perturbation not to be prolonged with impunity” (p.369). Equally cognizant of the significant fuel a state of triviality provides for suicidal fires, MacDonald (2003) observed the explosive effect that an atmosphere of suicidal commonplaceness has on contagions of suicide, In a small society like the Kulbi population set, every child grows up being exposed to occurrences of suicide and suicidal behavior amongst a very close circle of kin and neighbors. The child grows up accustomed to the idea. He sees or hears about elders, uncles, aunts, older cousins, friend’s parents killing themselves. Even if the “official” explicit social discourse speaks disparagingly of it, an unspoken and intimate adhesion to the idea of suicide might prevail in the minds of the young. Thus suicide becomes an accepted model of behavior, albeit one that may be condemned by explicit social and cultural rules. Direct imitation and clustering will then look more like “wavelets” that create a superficial turbulence added to waves propagating themselves through successive generations (p. 439). THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 15
  • 16. Yet not only are such contagious streams of suicidality dangerous in and of themselves. As Rubinstein recently noted “once begun, the suicidal acts seem to have acquired a psychological contagion of their own. Evidently the idea of suicide has become increasingly commonplace and compelling, and young children are now acquiring this idea at earlier ages” (MacDonald, 2003, p. 440, fn 1). MacDonald’s (2003) own observations were as follows: There was one single feature though that I could not fathom. Ever since I set foot on that remote corner, I heard constant references to self-inflicted death. I was bewildered by remarks to the effect that “one would just take a length of rattan, tie it to the roof-beam and...that’s it!” A number of recent occurrences of suicide were pointed out to me. Suicide seemed to be an ever-present topic of conversation. People were threatening to commit suicide and they said it with no apparent levity. They could name victims (p. 421). Keep in mind that the foregoing observations were made within the very society boasting, as MacDonald (2003) asserts, the world’s second highest suicide rate. Let the reader take note of the commonality evidenced in his observations; “He drank,” means “he committed suicide by drinking poison” (MacDonald, 2003, p. 435). And people referred “to suicide with a gesture measuring a length of rattan or rope and say ‘I’ll tie it to the roof-beam, and that’s it!’ Frequent quotes regarding the possibility or risk of suicide are made in public meetings, during litigation, and in private talks” (MacDonald, 2003, p. 435). In light of the numerous discoveries aforementioned, the reader can now ascertain the common connection between commonplaceness and death by suicide. Yet to drive the final nail into the proverbial commonplace coffin, Rubinstein (1983), respecting the dangers of suicidal triviality, observes; THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 16
  • 17. Suicide ideation among adolescents appears widespread in certain Micronesian communities and is popularly expressed in recent songs composed locally and aired on Micronesian radio stations, and in graffiti adorning T-shits and high school walls. Thus as suicide grows more frequent in these communities the idea itself acquires a certain familiarity if not fascination to young men, and the lethality of the act seems to be trivialized. Especially among some younger boys, the suicide acts appear to have acquired an experimental almost recreational element (p. 664). Again, these are observations made within a society possessing the world’s second highest suicide rate (Rubinstein, 1993). And as shocking as this crisis is, when deliberating applicable remedies, one must surely keep in mind Durkheim’s perspicacious observation that “The productive cause of the phenomenon naturally escapes the observer of individuals only; for it lies outside of individuals” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 324). Hence, we should be looking to find solutions beyond that field of expertise concerning itself with individual psychopathology. Rather, because it is a societal pathology we seek to cure, policymakers must seek solutions largely within the realm of sociology. Mental Illness is Not the Primary Cause of Contagion Related Suicides Lester (1972) writes, “It used to be thought that all individuals who attempted or completed suicide were mentally disturbed and the view still prevails today” (p. 193). Yet Durkheim (2013) observed; “Suicide may be seen to be for us only a phenomenon resulting from many different causes and appearing under many different forms; and it is clear that this phenomenon is not characteristic of disease” (p. 58). Thus, rather than mental illness being the chief cause of suicidal contagions, Phillips (1974) asserts that “the best available explanation of THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 17
  • 18. the Werther effect is that it is caused by suggestion” (p. 350). Durkheim (2013) posits, “If suicide can be shown to be a mental disease with its own characteristics and distinct evolution, the question is settled; every suicide is a madman” (p. 59). As this is surely not the case, he consequently provides that “Not every suicide can therefore be considered insane, without doing violence to language” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 66). And in regard to the abuse of the term “mental illness” so defined, Durkheim (2013) writes, The soldier kills himself at the least disappointment, for the most futile reasons, for a refusal to leave, a reprimand, an unjust punishment, a delay in promotion, a question of honor, a flush of momentary jealousy or even simply because other suicides have occurred before his eyes or to his knowledge. Such is really the source of these phenomena of contagion often observed in armies...it cannot be chance which caused the appearance in precisely this regiment or that locality of so many person predisposed to self-homicide by their organic constitution (pp. 238-39). As for the proposition that such untenable rates of suicide--presenting within such close proximity--should be attributed to psychopathology, Durkheim (2013) concludes, “Then it may be attributed not to a blind chance which from all points of the compass assembled in one barracks or penitentiary a fairly large number of persons all with the same mental affliction, but to the influence of the common environment in which they live” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 140-41). Cognizant of the implausibility for such high prevalence rates of mental illness residing-- literally--under one roof, Durkheim (2013) concludes, “the suicidal tendency can be created by the social environment” (p. 140). Indeed, when pondering the foregoing examples, one may readily deduce that the probability for so many mentally ill individuals showing up in this close THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 18
  • 19. proximity solely by chance would represent odds equivalent to that of a stack of cards being haphazardly disperesed into the air, yet landing in sequential perfection. Durkheim (2013) asserts that suicides resulting from mental illness “differ from others as illusions and hallucinations differ from normal perceptions and automatic impulses from deliberate acts” (p. 66). Significantly, Durkheim (2013) writes, “It is true that there is a gradual shading from the former to the latter; but if that sufficed to identify them one would also, generally speaking, have to confuse health with sickness, since the latter is but a variety of the former” (p. 66). And under these latter circumstances, as Durkheim (2013) suggests, considerable injury would be inflicted upon the term “mental illness” in the case it were allowed to be strewn about with such utter and carefree liberality. Indeed, should the term “mental illness” find permissible application to any one of the innumerable quiddities or peccadillos known to man, then that very term will lose all effectual meaning in our society. “An imperfection is not a disease; otherwise disease would have to be postulated everywhere, since imperfection is everywhere” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 362). It was John Stuart Mill (2002) who, in his Essays on Liberty, perhaps said it best when he asserted, “Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained” (p. 75). It may be the case that pharmaceutical companies are happy to frame each and every eccentricity known to man as a psychopathology in need of medication. Yet for those holding no financial interests in these same corporations, such broad definitions prove unhelpful at best and, at their wors, utterly strewn with dangers. The human race is in possession of a multifarious THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 19
  • 20. array of varieties that, when given the liberty to breath, appear atypical to those unfamiliar with exploring their truest selves. Yet the pressure to conform exerted by this latter group often causes this uniqueness of personhood to reside beneath a mask of normalcy so-called, created to survive, adapt, and conform to the expectations of others. Yet it was Steve Jobs (2005) who famously observed, “Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it.” Jobs, a man who thought and acted differently than most, went on to create his own definition of “normal.” However, in a society deeply attached to psychopathological definitions, if Jobs had not achieved his extraordinary level of success, and somehow stumbled into a psychotherapist’s office in that state of discouragement common to all who transverse humanity’s innumerable viscittudes, Job’s would have likely walked out--not only with medication in hand--with a diagnosis he would thereafter define himself by, perhaps for life. Yet, “An imperfection is not a disease; otherwise disease would have to be postulated everywhere, since imperfection is everywhere” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 362). In concert with the aforementioned observations, Durkheim (2013) asserts, “Even if it were proved that the average man never kills himself and that only those who do so show certain anomalies, this would still not justify considering insanity a necessary condition of suicide; for an insane person is not simply a man who thinks or acts somewhat differently from the average (p. 66). And surely, writes Simpson in the introduction to Durkheim’s (2013) work ,“From the standpoint of psychoanalytic psychiatry, it may be said that every individual has what we may call a suicide-potential, a tendency to self-murder which varies in degree of intensity from individual to individual” (p.23). The truth to take away from the foregoing deliberations is that a THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 20
  • 21. far greater percentage of suicides result for reasons other than actual mental illness. Buttressing the foregoing assertions, Rubinstein--who is arguably the world’s foremost expert in suicidal epidemics--proclaims that over the course of a human’s lifespan, “the prevalence rate of mental illness is minimal, therefore, when the suicide-rate is maximal, and prior to that no regular relation can be found between the variations of the two” (1992, p. 53). And, after comparing statistics worldwide, Durkheim (2013) concludes that “the countries with the fewest insane have the most suicides” (p. 73). Thus, when seeking to remedy epidemics of suicide, mental illness is not the enemy we seek. Hezel (1987), writing about how young teenage boys customarily hang themselves for reasons deemed paltry at best, notes the following justification; “one in anger at his mother for giving away a pet dog, another in shame and terror at injuring an uncle with a rock he had thrown, and a third for fear he would be beaten for returning home late after watching video” (p. 48). Hezel (1987) asserts, Even a cursory examination of the case data reveals that Micronesian suicides exhibit an etiology markedly different from that associated with suicide in the West. There is almost none of the chronic depression, the vague sense that life is meaningless, or even the despondency at failure in business or school that seems to play such a large part in suicides in other parts of the world (p. 48). Writing in 1897, Durkheim therefore deduced “that there are suicides, and numerous ones at that, not connected with insanity,” with this latter term equating to the “mental illness” of today (p. 67). Thus, in cases of suicidal contagions at least, rather than mental illness, the chief culprit resides in the pessimistic undercurrents pervading that particular society. And these currents, THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 21
  • 22. conjoined to an appreciable extent of triviality accorded to the suicidal act, provides the most effectual recipe for a catostrophic suicidal disaster (Durkheim, 2013). As for the prevalence of mental illness among completed suicides, in the course of Lester’s (1972) analysis of a multitude of extant suicidal studies, he found that “estimates of different writers ranged from 5 to 94 percent estimates”(Lester, 1972, p. 193). Significantly, Lester (1972) adds the following caveat to this discovery; “If objective data recorded prior to the suicidal act is used to diagnose the individual then estimates of mental disturbance are lower, ranging from 5 to 22 percent” (p. 193). Thus, what likely accounts for these former--higher ranging--postmortem diagnoses is that the suicidal act at issue “may have been used to arrive at a diagnosis” of psychopathology for the individual (Lester, 1972, p. 197). Thus, to ensure greater effectuality in future postmortem diagnoses, forensic psychologists must necessarily “control for the contamination of diagnosis by the self-destructive behavior” (Lester, 1972, p. 197). Residing on the low end of this statistical spectrum admittedly, MacDonlad (2013) observed only 1 out of 107 suicides being conclusively the result of mental illness. However, it must be noted that this statistical observation was made in the midst of one of the most expansive suicidal contagions in the history of mankind; which only serves to buttress my assertion that the prevalence rate for mental illness in the midst of suicidal contagions is invariably low. Rising above these assertions, however substantiated, one fact stands with incontrovertible luster; that instances of mental illness in the midst of suicidal epidemics are far less than any psychological scientist heretofore imagined. Thus, in consideration of the aforementioned percentages for suicides all told, one can plausibly deduce a mental illness prevalence rate of 3 to 15 percent for contagion related suicides. Yet, undeniably, this stands as news to many. THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 22
  • 23. Falling short of a true mental illness diagnosis, Lester (1971), when comparing neuroticism to extroversion, nonetheless “found that students who had attempted or threatened suicide had higher neuroticism scores than non-suicidal students” (p. 287). However, a penchant for neurotic introversion--while not constituting the average psychic constitution of humans in general--consitutes a considerable percentage of our human populace. Thus, although deemed at “abnormal” by some, neurotocism nevertheless does, and surely must, fall short of a true mental illness diagnosis. Hypersensitivity leads to multifarious vocations; cloistered monastics, erudite scholars, and creative artists of the highest rank, to name but a few. Yet, as Durkheim (2013) adamantly insists, it would do serious violence to the word “illness” to define so sizable a percentage of our populace as such. A Paucity of Evidence Supporting a Genetic Genesis As far as genetic predispositions for suicide go, Lester (1972), after analyzing hundreds, if not thousands of suicidal studies, concludes, “There appears to be little evidence that inherited factors play an important part in the determination of suicidal behavior” (p. 323). Although not exclusively within the genetic purview, he found that in cases of suicides, “Studies of serotonin have either been negative or contradictory” (Lester, 1972, p. 34). Astonishingly, perhaps, MacDonald (2003) garners information that strongly militates against an appreciable genetic influence for suicide, writing: The Kulbi situation provides us with a unique natural experiment. Unexpectedly, a section of a rather homogeneous ethnic group, for no apparent reason, displays a tremendously high and fairly constant rate of suicide, completely unlike the other neighboring groups. Does it happen elsewhere? Actually it does. The Aguarunas from THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 23
  • 24. Peru, and the Vaqueiros from northern Spain are strikingly similar in this respect. Together with small island societies, like the Tikopia, Maenge, and possibly some other Micronesian societies in the past, they are selfcontained, endogamous, and relatively isolated populations. They exhibit inordinately high rates of suicide compared to their closest neighbors and to the surrounding population (p. 438). Indeed, how could it be that neighbors living in such close proximity possess a level of genetic distinction that would lead them to possess such ostensible immunity to the suicidal contagion occurring next door. For surely, over the course of the last hundreds, if not thousands of years, genetic intermingling occurred. It is therefore implausible to suggest that genetics are appreciably at work in this evil. Hence, likened to the members of the military aforementioned, who resided in close proximity and suffered the blow of suicidal contagion as a result, it is the social environment, and its accompanying pathological ills, which provides the genesis for epidemics of suicide (Durkheim, 2013). In the same manner that individuals residing in army bunks suffer not even a hint of the suicidal contagion experienced by their comrades a stone’s throw away, villages in close proximity can exhibit a patent immunity to this societal disease. Where is it then? What is the active ingredient residing within this phenomenon that proves as invasive as it is elusive? Whatever etiological features suicide contagions possess, one thing stands clear; doctors of sociology and policy makers alike must not rest until a remedy is discovered. “Sociologically considered, it is necessary to assuage the suicidal proclivities of whatever social environments we find inducing and aggravating and perpetuating tendencies toward self-murder among individuals” (Durkheim 2013, p.31). And with the foregoing sentiments I wholeheartedly THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 24
  • 25. concur. For, cognizant that contagions more readily flourish when “the current of pessimism has reached a degree of abnormal intensity which is due to some disturbance of the social organism,” the guardians of our society--the elected Statesmen--are obligated to take action with whatever countermeasures evidence effectual prowess (Durkheim, 2013, p. 370). Policy Considerations Rubinstein (1992), suggests, “Let us observe that the successful discoveries and initiatives of the present vaguely determine the direction of those of the future” (p. 30). Thus, our positive actions today can beneficially impact the societal health of the future. In spite of the deliberations regarding societal streams of pessimism and pervasive currents of negativity heretofore discussed, Rubinstein (1992) notes, significantly, that “In historical importance...no mental interference equals that of a desire and a belief” (pp. 41-41). Thus, it is this optimistic current that proves inherently stronger, and even more pervasive, than the streams of pessimism aforementioned. As Tarde (2014) suggests, “otherwise society would not endure. For the same reason, and in spite of frequent epidemics of panic, hope is certainly more catching than terror” (2014, p. 284). And just as “the scattered individual forces which are inherent in the innumerable beings composing the environment where these forms propagate themselves, have taken a common direction,” we can--indeed we must--take expeditious and aggressive action today that will positively determine the direction of those forces in the many years to come (Rubinstein, 1992, pp. 27-28). In the case of Alaska’s Native community, this is a direction that beckons, if not indeed shouts: be reversed. For the truth is patent that contagions more readily occur when “the current of pessimism has reached a degree of abnormal intensity THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 25
  • 26. which is due to some disturbance of the social organism” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 370). Which may, for instance, be caused by a loss of Native subsistence rights possessed for eons heretofore. Policy Recommendation. Durkheim (2013) writes, “A child’s taste is formed as he comes into contact with the monuments of national taste bequeathed by previous generations” (p. 314). Thus, policy makers must take actions today that will ensure the tastes bequeathed to future generations is the taste of life, rather than suicidal death. Yet to accomplish this, we must find a way to interject a current of hope within all societies suffering from these terrible and formidable suicidal epidemics. As Durkheim (2013) asserts, The only way...is to act directly on the current of pessimism, to lead it back to its normal bed and confine it there, to relieve most consciences of its influences and confine it there. Once they have recovered their moral equilibrium they will act appropriately against whatever offends them (p. 372). Yet what will constitute that psychic hook; the very element that one can attach these positive interjected currents to? Durkheim (2013), searching for the same, deliberates thus: What does oblige them, then? The respect for custom, the authority of past generations? On that case the cause of the continuity is no longer individuals serving as vehicles for ideas or practices, but the highly collective state of mind which causes ancestors to be regarded with an especial respect among a certain people...And this state of mind is imposed on individuals. Like the tendency to suicide, this state of mind in a given society even has a definite intensity, depending on the greater or lesser degree with which individuals conform to tradition (p. 308, fn. 7). THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 26
  • 27. With the aforesaid, there is the suggestion of tapping into that ancestral current of respect, and it may in fact be this very stream of thought that constitutes the most effectual hammer to drive the nail at issue. Durkheim (2013) asserts, “One is detached from life because, seeing no goal to which he may attach himself, he feels himself useless and purposeless” (p. 225). Significantly, Durkheim (2013) further proffers: He must feel himself more solidarity with a collective existence which precedes him in time, which survives him, and which encompasses him at all points. If this occurs, he will no longer find the only aim of his conduct in himself, and, understanding that he is the instrument of a purpose greater than himself, he will see that he is not without significance. Life will resume meaning in his eyes, because it will recover its natural aim and orientation (pp. 373-74). In concert with the foregoing deliberations, a goal possessing considerable potentiality for imbuing Alaska Natives with a life-giving stream of positivity and purpose is the following; to carry the torch of tradition onward, for the many generations to come. And the realization that their ancestors are not merely observing their progress in a state of utter passivity but, rather, actively rooting them on, assisting them with interventions wherever possible. It is this realization, this happy current of thought, that will greatly assist in infusing this culture with an appreciable degree of suicidal immunity. To provide but a few examples, assertions similar to the following should be utilized: “Your ancestors are cheering you on, assisting you at every turn. Make certain not to disappoint them,” or, “Carry on and you will celebrate with these ancestors in paradise,” and “Your ancestors will honor you and your posterity for sticking with the fight, for your courage in THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 27
  • 28. persevering through all of life’s challenges. For this you will be deemed worthy to receive the crown of life.” And whatever else constitutes a desirable reward within Native culture. Once implemented, “The bond that unites them with the common cause attaches them to life and the lofty goal they envisage prevents their feeling personal troubles so deeply” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 210). This unifying bond can be forged by the realization that their ancestors live eternally and thus continue to cheer them on, while those still in the flesh valiantly seek to overcome the necessary and invariable obstacles placed in their path--challenges to test their mettle. Yet, through it all, their ancestors--and the providence of God--are helping them to prevail by constant acts of divinely orchestrated intervention. Yet it remains the responsibility of those in the midst of these trials to persevere. Hence they must not lose faith. A perspective like the foregoing one, when imbued within Native culture, will provide individuals with the necessary fuel to remain in the fight of life, particularly when the going gets rough. As M. Scott Peck (2004) famously quipped, “Life is Difficult!” Indeed, “Life is said to be intolerable unless some reason for existing is involved, some purpose justifying life’s trials” (Durkheim, 2013, p. 210). The realization of an individual’s connectivity--with the ancestors of the past and the posterity of the future, will provide that most essential impetus. The Infusion of Positive Literature. To ameliorate these epidemics of suicide, I propose that we, like Goethe, introduce literature into whichever society happens to be, however inadvertantly, courting such societal ills. Thus, rather than to the masses in general, which may bring little effect, social scientists and policy makers must target the society suffering the brunt of the suicidal epidemic’s effects. And, as the greatest effects are being felt among Alaska THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 28
  • 29. Native villages and communities, these societal areas will warrant the uttermost concentration. Thus, I shall direct my policy recommendations there. While policy recommendations involving the infusion of positive literature into a particular society are undoubtedly novel, Lester (1972) provides that numerous researchers, including; “McClelland (1961), Rudin (1968), Lester (1968), and Barret and Franke (1970),” individuals making the study of suicide their very lives’ work, believed that an appreciable nexus existed between childrens’ stories and the suicide rate suffered by the readers or listeners of these stories several years later. Evidencing the extent of their convictions, they compared children’s stories from no less than seventeen nations (Lester, 1972, p. 268). And while “Barret and Frank concluded that national psychological motives [evidenced by the youthful literature of that nation] were not associated with death rates cross-nationally” they did leave room for the impact of literature on a smaller societal scale, for instance, among villages (Lester, 1972, p. 268). In light of these discoveries, and considering the multifarious issues presented heretofore, I propose that we introduce literature specifically engineered to counter the present suicidal contagion’s societally deleterious effects within the Alaska Native community. This can be achieved through the creation of writings that specifically address the relevant societal challenges at issue, utilizing the best Alaska Native writers and artists, in concert with other Native American authors and illustrators and, if necessary, non-native artists and writers as well. The Writings. The writings will include stories that specifically address the issues undermining the Native Alaska’s societal vitality. In these stories life will be deemed a sacred and honored trust, the loss of which is to be ranked among Native culture's greatest tragedies. The GOAL in life will be to persevere, refusing to turn one’s back on life, so that individuals can THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 29
  • 30. fulfill an honored task; the mission of carrying the sacred torch of that Native culture’s tradition one generation further, helping to ensure that one’s village or tribe’s survival will, in the future, be secured. Ancestral Cheerleaders. The ancestors of these individuals living in the physical world today are observing their every move. The elders are surely watching. Yet what proves more significant is the fact that they are cheering thier own related members of the Native community on and thus inspiring them. They are assisting them with divine encouragement and providential interventions at each and every turn. Indeed, the elders now reside with God, and therefore have great powers to intervene, helping to ensure not only their posterity’s continuance, but their entire Native culture’s survival as well. These stories must, and will be filled with lessons illustrating the value of perseverance, the sacredness of life, and the duty one has to carry the torch of their tradition onward into the future. Of perhaps the greatest significance, efforts put forth by these participants in the flesh will help keep alive the Alaskan Native lineage for eons to come. Yet, rather than merely Alaska Native specific goals, these stories will, additionally, convey universal objectives. They will inform how the entire world’s future depends on the success of these Alaskan Native warriors; that our world will fail to exist without the tremendous equilibrium, spirituality, and wisdom provided by this world’s indigenous people’s. They are, being among the most spiritually minded people inhabiting the earth, instrumental for the success of God’s divine plan for the world. Indeed, there will be no race of people, no wisdom of the ages, capable of filling the eternal void left behind if the Alaska Native lineage is lost. Thus, the Alaska Native peoples must, with the help of their ancestors, and the loving and willing intervention of God, persevere THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 30
  • 31. in the fight, and carry on to live another day, month, year, decade, century, eon. Yet they must not do so solely for their own personal benefit--to receive a great crown of reward in return. They must act and live in this way to ensure that their own posterity will--rather than being saddled with shame--speak with only the highest regard and exuberant pride of their members’ heroic lives; so that one’s posterity will retell the astonishing accomplishments of those who chose to live bravely, daringly, and fully in this world. Those persevering courageously to the end will be honored and celebrated throughout the ages to come. Of tremendous significance, this literature will, in addition to conveying the greatest extent of honor and respect for native culture, religious practices, and language, hold Native Alaskan harvesting and subsistence rights in uttermost regard. Conclusion Like all suicide epidemics of the past, the chief active element is not mental illness. It is, rather, the inherent human proclivity to imitate. And what does an individual in society imitate? She imitates the very society that surrounds her, whether this be steeped in a pathological sickness or imbued with health and enlivening vigor. Yet we must not acquiesce to a passive observation while innumerable individuals discard their very lives as readily as one would a handkerchief. Alaska’s suicide epidemic is a circumstance that, rather than suggests, screams for remedy. The gatekeepers of our society, the very Statesmen in our midst, people entrusted by the citizens--Alaska Natives included--to secure the common good, must necessarily take action! As this paper has made patent, there are unequivocal remedies that exist. Thus, all that remains necessary is the willingness to pick up these finely crafted weapons of societal warfare and put them to ready use. In doing so, we can rest assured that the target is, for once, the correct one. THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 31
  • 32. Statesmen, take heed of the foregoing deliberations. Employ all the effectual stratagems you can muster against this most formidable societal enemy, a beast that will soon become unmanageable. For if we do not, rather than beast, it will burgeon into one of society’s most dreadful nemesis. THE WERTHER EFFECT IN ALASKA 32
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