Suicide Discussion is Evolving in the Wake of Kate Spade’s Death

The death of famous handbag designer Kate Spade earlier this week by suicide in her Manhattan apartment has reignited the conversation surrounding suicide, depression, and the way the two are linked. Spade’s longtime friend Elyce Arons told The New York Times this week that when the subject of celebrity suicides came up in their discussions about Spade’s depression, her friend assured her, “‘I would never do that. I would never do that. I would never do that.’ And I believed her.”

National Institute of Mental Health data show that, in 2016, 1 million U.S. adults made plans for death and attempted suicide. Eric Beeson, core faculty member at Northwestern University, says that being ‘suicidal’ is more than just a list of factors but rather a spectrum of behaviors, and that the act of suicide is not usually an act of impulse. “People talk about it being selfish; people talk about it being irrational,” says Beeson, “but actually I think a lot of suicides are very well-thought out, very well-contemplated.”

The moral and philosophical discussion of suicide may also be changing. In ancient cultures such as Japan and Greece, suicide was seen as noble, available, and even honorable. Certain countries and states are passing “Death with Dignity” laws that allows phsyician assisted suicide for those diagnosed with a terminal illness. The conversation starts to travel down the path of when and under what circumstances suicide is “ok.” As touchy as this subject may be for some people, the image of the men jumping out of the Twin Towers on 9/11 before they collapsed are not usually met with the proposition that they should be judged. “That analogy is not too different from someone who has a depressive disorder,” explains Beeson. “It’s not true flames, but it’s the flames of something.”

See Cindy Dampier, In the Wake of Kate Spade’s Death, Looking at Suicide Differently, Chicago Tribune, June 8, 2018.