Ecstatic suicide

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Abstract
Suicide is not an epiphenomenon of depression; it occurs in conditions other than major depressive episodes. Some anguished, excited patients in the grips of ecdysial or apotheotic fantasies attempt suicide when reality testing fails, feeling it a thrill. When malignant narcissism colors severe borderline personality disorder such suicides may occur. Three illustrative cases are presented here and are then placed in the perspective of mass suicides and the ecstatic experiences of third century Christian martyrs. Elated, grandiose suicide material is to be found in the lives and writings of Yukio Mishima and Sylvia Plath, and in some perverse sexual fantasies. Some persons kill themselves not feeling depressed in the melancholic sense; they are delighted. Their suicides are acts of omnipotent, death-defying magic. Correct suicide risk assessment must take elation of mood and grandiose beliefs about the nature of death into account, because certain individuals are convinced that suicide is passage to glory.

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