The Role of Shame in Suicide

The differences between shame and guilt are explored, with a focus on experiential and developmental factors and on behavioral reactions to these emotions. The role of shame as a motive for suicidal behavior is illustrated with examples of suicidal behavior in Greek tragedy, Asian cultures, and jails, and among contemporary suicides, such as that in 1996 by Admiral Mike Boorda, Chief of U.S. Naval Operations.     

Liberty as the Absence of Imposed Cost: The Libertarian Conception of Interpersonal Liberty

This paper argues for a non-moral interpretation of the libertarian conception of interpersonal liberty as 'the absence of imposed cost.' In the event of a clash of imposed costs, observing such liberty entails ' minimising imposed costs'. Three fundamental criticisms are examined: strictly interpreted, this would logically imply genocide in practice; it is impractically unclear and moralised; it could entail mob rule of some kind. Self-ownership and private property are then non-morally derived merely from applying this formula in a state of nature. Various subsidiary issues arise throughout.     

Gender and the Primary Prevention of Suicide Mortality

Primary prevention aims at reducing the incidence of a disorder. The first step in primary prevention involves documenting the magnitude of the problem and identifying risk factors. Consistent with primary prevention practices, we review the national and international epidemiological data on suicide mortality and then discuss the implications these data hold for primary prevention. Our approach is novel because we systematically examine the suicide epidemiology data by gender and culture. Suicide mortality appears to be highest among individuals (e.g., young adult married females in some Papua New Guinea regions; older adult, isolated, White males in the United States) for whom such behavior is culturally sanctioned. Thus, an important target for primary prevention may be local cultures of gender and suicide.