A Pre-Suicidal State: Causes and Possible Development Scenarios. A Philosophical Analysis

The article is devoted to the analysis of a psychic deviation known as a pre-suicidal state. The perception of this phenomenon in contemporary sources, including philosophical, psychological, and medical ones, has been thoroughly analysed. Two main interpretations of the pre-suicidal state have been identified: sociological and psychological. Notwithstanding all the differences between the two, both interpretations characterise this state through a set of external causes and empirical indicators. One of the reasons of such an interpretation of the term, which implies a certain way of the understanding of the pre-suicidal state itself, is the lack of a thorough philosophical explanation of the state in question. As a result, there is no systematic uniform approach to the characteristics of the pre-suicidal state, which causes problems in identifying its time frames as well as the particular behaviour traits of a person with suicidal tendencies. For solving these problems, it might be instrumental to resort to the techniques existentialist philosophy elaborated in the 19th and 20th cc. These techniques may enable one to reveal the nature of the pre-suicidal state, i.e., to explain why a person should feel a desire to eradicate oneself. The research is based on one of the key points of the existentialist paradigm: the person's understanding of self is shaped by three main factors: freedom, choice, and death. Death is a prerequisite for a person's experience of choice, while choice is a prerequisite for a person's experience of freedom. Therefore, death is the last possibility expected. The pre-suicidal state occurs when death is excluded from the variety of possibilities and is substituted by experiencing certain life circumstances. A person's assessment of death also undergoes a change in the process: instead of the most tragic event possible it becomes the most desirable. Thus, a person's pathologisation takes place as self is now understood not through the expectation of death but through the expectation of some tragic life circumstances. The author draws the following conclusions. The pre-suicidal state is caused not only by the combination of external circumstances and psychic peculiarities of the suicidal person (which are mainly held responsible in contemporary literature), but also by the change in the person's understanding of self. In the pre-suicidal state, one's understanding of self is no longer shaped by the expectation of death as the terminal and most tragic possibility but by the expectation of certain life circumstances which are now seen as the terminal and most tragic ones. Therefore, not only the reassessment of external circumstances is instrumental in overcoming the pre-suicidal state. This reassessment should be complemented by the procedure of restricting the volume of the concepts determining the pre-suicidal state, which results in fragmenting and weakening of the tragic worldview initially caused by external circumstances. Consequently, death is to regain its normal place in the person's understanding of self as the terminal and most tragic possibility.

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