Text
French
ID: <
10.7202/018007ar>
·
DOI: <
10.7202/018007ar>
Abstract
The paper by Daniel Dagenais aims to link the meaning of suicide, as seen through concrete cases in the framework of a qualitative study, with that which is revealed by the overall statistics. The author seeks to understand how hundreds of suicides committed separately, by individuals who do not know one another, end up taking on such a recognizable social pattern, resembling a collective signature. He proposes that suicide be looked upon as the murder of an identity. This concept is supported by theoretical and epistemological considerations and is then illustrated using material gathered in the course of field work. This leads to preliminary results showing that suicide brings into play passions through which two identifiable types of pathological conduct are explicitly expressed: a pathological masculine identity, and a self-hatred that reveals the potential anatomy of an unending adolescence. In conclusion, the author seeks to trace the social causes revealed by these behaviours.