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Sallekhanā is not Suicide
impact on the survivors. Those reactions generally vary directly in intensity with the distance of relationship with the suicidal person. Among the group in a close relationship, the spouse, children, family, relatives, friends or....a variety of feelings and reactions may be aroused. These may include : (1) strong feelings of loss, accompanied by sorrow and mourning, (2) strong feeling of anger, (3) guilt, shame, embarassment with feelings of responsibility for the death, (4) feelings of failure or inadequacy to supply what was needed could not be supplied, (5) feelings of relief, (6) feelings of having been deserted, (7) ambivalence with a mixture of all the above, (8) reactions of doubt and self-questioning whether enough was attempted, (9) denial of complicity, (10) arousal of one's own impulses towards suicide."! I may add to this list; feelings of horror at the unexpected death and in an unexpected manner.
The psychology of the persons committing suicide is more important than the effects of suicide on the kith and kin. “ The typical suicidal person will generally reveal all or most of the following characteristics (1) : ambivalence—the desire, either conscious or unconscious or both, to live and to die, present at the same time; (2) feelings of hopelessness or helplessness, futility and inadequacy to handle problems; (3) feelings of either physical or psychological exhaustion or both (4) marked feelings of undeserved anxiety or tension, depression, anger, and/or guilt; (5) feelings of chaos and disorganization with inability to restore order; (6) moral swings, for example, from agitation to apathy or withdrawal; (7) cognitive constriction, inability to see alternative limitation or potentialities; (8) loss of interest in usual activities such as sex, hobbies and work; (9) physical distress such as insomnia, anorexia, psychosthenia and psychosomatic symptoms."'To this list may be added : emotional excitement, sense of depression or frustration or both. The causes of desire for immediate selfdestruction are man-made. I have already enumerated some 2. Ibid., p. 394.
3. Ibid., p. 390.
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