Suicide and older men – Part two
Our understanding of suicide is at best fragmentary. It’s complicated by our attitudes, religious beliefs, whether the deceased was a close friend or family member. The most acceptable position to settle on when someone close has committed suicide is to say, ‘the balance of his mind was disturbed’. It offers more satisfaction than living with a lifelong unresolved quest for answers. Mental disturbance has the advantage of absolving both the subject and survivors of moral examination and uncertainty. Nevertheless, a degree of uncertainty is inevitable.
I woke up to a gloomy, wet weekend morning in Auckland. It had been a busier than usual week when extra attention and output was required. Just as I was mulling that I needed to chill this day before attending to the many ‘must do’s’, I stumbled on this piece.
The Newsroom article, Taken By The State, republished by Stuff along with two videos of distressed children being forcibly removed from home by police officers, is harrowing viewing.
