Suicide note of Dalida reading "La vie m'est insupportable. Pardonnez-moi." ("Life is unbearable for me. Forgive me.")

A suicide note or death note is a message written by a person who intends to die by suicide.

A study examining Japanese suicide notes estimated that 25–30% of suicides are accompanied by a note. However, incidence rates may depend on ethnicity and cultural differences, and may reach rates as high as 50% in certain demographics.[1] A suicide message can be in any form or medium, but the most common methods are by a written note, an audio message, or a video.

Reasons

Some fields of study, such as sociology, psychiatry and graphology, have investigated the reasons why people who complete or attempt suicide leave a note.

The most common reasons that people contemplating suicide choose to write a suicide note include one or more of the following:[2]

  • To ease the pain of those known to the victim by attempting to dissipate guilt.
  • To increase the pain of survivors by attempting to create guilt.
  • To set out the reason(s) for suicide.
  • To send a message to the world.
  • To express thoughts and feelings that the person felt unable to express in life.
  • To give instructions for disposal of the remains.
  • Occasionally, to confess acts of murder or some other offence.[3][4][5]

Sometimes there is also a message in the case of murder-suicide, explaining the reason(s) for the murder(s), see for example, Marc Lépine's suicide statement and videotaped statements of the 7 July 2005 London bombers.

See also

  • Death poem – Genre of poetry
  • Last words – Final words attributed to a person before their death
  • Will and testament – Legal declaration by which a person distributes their property at death

References

  1. ↑ SHIOIRI, TOSHIKI; NISHIMURA, AKIYOSHI; AKAZAWA, KOHEI; ABE, RYO; NUSHIDA, HIDEYUKI; UENO, YASUHIRO; KOJIKA-MARUYAMA, MAKI; SOMEYA, TOSHIYUKI (April 2005). "Incidence of note-leaving remains constant despite increasing suicide rates". Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences. 59 (2): 226–228. doi:10.1111/j.1440-1819.2005.01364.x. PMID 15823174. S2CID 28986718.
  2. ↑ Olson, Lenora (2005). The Use of Suicide Notes as an Aid for Understanding Motive in Completed Suicides (Thesis). University of Utah.
  3. ↑ "Suicide note reveals murder confession". London: bbc.co.uk. 1971-07-14. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  4. ↑ "Man jailed for murder in lay-by". London: bbc.co.uk. 2008-03-01. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  5. ↑ "Suicide note found in murder-suicide case". cbc.ca. 2000-06-23. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
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