Suicide in Early Modern and Modern Europe

an act and a subject of discourse, in the early and late modern periods. It argues that, while publications on the theme have increased considerably in the past two decades, the problematic character of the evidence for suicide has led to afocus on attitudes to suicide at the expense of empirical investigations. The latter have largely confirmed the link between social isolation and suicide, posited by Durkheim, but have revealed differences in patterns across social groups. The growth of lenient attitudes to suicide has proven to be more protracted and contested than originally believed. The ambivalent role of clergy, the persistence of religious sanctions against suicide, and continued efforts by the state to curb suicide all suggest that the term 'hybridization' better characterizes the changes over this period than the older term 'secularization'. Finally, this review recommends that historians undertake further empirical investigations of suicide, where possible, and that they broaden suicide research to include suicidal behaviours and alternative responses to despair in order to identify the specific allure of suicide. The author of a recent history of suicide, Ursula Baumann, reported a dismissive response to her chosen topic among her German colleagues. Many found it a marginal theme, suited only to those with an interest in the macabre.1 While there is no reason to think that such attitudes extend beyond the historical profession in Germany, it is clear that the history of suicide has yet to make an impact on the mainstream. The hesitation of historians generally may rest less on the small proportion of any society who commit suicide or the unpleasantness of the subject, than on scepticism about the reliability of the evidence and the meaningfulness of conclusions based on intensely individual experiences. There is good reason for caution. Historians of suicide face the methodological challenges inherent in reconstructing the past in a particularly dramatic fashion. What better example is there of the limits of our knowledge of the past than the corpse of a drowned man? Did he Dept of History, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland [email protected] * I wish to thank Simone Ameskamp and the anonymous reviewer for their comments. 1 Ursula Baumann, Vom Recht aufden eigenen Tod: Die Geschichte d s Suizids vom 18. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert (Weimar, 200), pp. v and I. Vera Lind received a similar reaction from the same audience, although she acknowledged some sympathy, alongside surprise, suspicion, and cynicism, for the topic, Vera Lind, Selbstmord in derfriihen Neuzeit: Diskurs, Lebenswelt und kultureller Wandel am Beispiel der Herzogtiimer Schleswg und Holstein (Gottingen, 1999), p. 7.