Farewell to the World: A History of Suicide

Content: Part I. In the West : The worst sin and the gravest crime : The rise in suicide: \'a most tragic fact\' 
 When did the figure start to rise? 
 The reasons for this growth 
 Past reactions 
 Punishments for those who killed themselves or attempted to do so 
 Dishonourable burial 
 On the formation of Christian ethics regarding voluntary death 
 Chastity, rape and adultery 
 Arabs, Christians and martyrs 
 Christian beliefs regarding the causes of suicide 
 Despair and the Redcrosse Knight 
 Pre-Christian beliefs on the consequences of suicide 
 Suicide as theft and desertion 
 A \'new crime, that would hardly be believable\' 
 Internal and external controls --
The key to our prison : The lawfulness of suicide 
 A changed sensitivity in the literature 
 A new name for an old deed 
 Natural and supernatural causes 
 Melancholy, hypochondria and hysteria 
 Depenalization de facto 
 Depenalization de jure 
 Saving endangered lives 
 The freedom to take one\'s own life --
Killing God, oneself and others : Two opposite trends 
 Two channels of a single stream 
 Public and private crimes 
 What brought about these changes? 
 At the forefront of change 
 Despair, anger, hatred --
When poverty does not protect : Sociology\'s \'one law\' and what remains 
 When the Jews lost their \'ancient immunity\' 
 The effects of nazism and fascism 
 Concentration camps and prisons 
 The Great Wars 
 Emigrations 
 Suicide is a \'White thing\' 
 Has suicide become a little less male? 
 Sexual orientation 
 Economic depressions and crises of prosperity 
 The unforeseen consequences of the shift to methane 
 The trend inversion in central and northern Europe 
 The medicalization of suicide and its effects 
 The treatment of pain and other illnesses 
 The steep rise in Eastern Europe --
Part II. In the East : Before becoming a widow : Sati 
 The rite 
 The effects of polygamy 
 Funeral and wedding ceremonies 
 For love or through coercion? 
 Suicides: condemned and admired 
 The origin and spread of sati as a custom 
 Sati or widow 
 A clash of cultures --
Making the strong and powerful tremble : The past 
 Chinese peculiarities 
 Continuity and change 
 Old people and filial devotion 
 Suicide among Chinese women 
 Mao Zedong and the May Fourth paradigm 
 The cultural repertoire of suicides 
 The state and honouring the virtuous 
 After a husband\'s death 
 Differences compared to sati 
 Following the death of a fiancé 
 A way of not submitting to enemies 
 After assault and sexual violence 
 Against arranged marriages 
 The origin of the changes 
 Against oneself and others 
 Female suicide in the last two decades --
The body as a bomb : Suicide attacks and terrorism 
 The modern phenomenon of suicide missions 
 The rationality of weak players 
 Nationalism and religious differences 
 The globalization of suicide missions 
 Cyberspace 
 Becoming a suicide bomber 
 For a noble cause 
 An army of roses --
Conclusions --
Appendix : Statistics on suicide.