While of Unsound Mind

Narratives of Responsibility in Suicide Notes from the Twentieth Century

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6066624
AutoresIsabelle Perreault, Patrice Corriveau, Jean-François Cauchie
Ano2016
Volume49
Fascículo98
Páginas155-170
Data de publicação2016-01-01
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoHistoire sociale (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0018-2257 • E-ISSN: 1918-6576
EditoraProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/his.2016.0022
OpenAlexW2467477125
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas7
Referências citadas5

Between 1892 and 1960, most suicide verdicts rendered during coroners’ inquests labelled death by a person’s own hand as “suicide while of unsound mind.” During this period, psychiatrists increasingly determined the degree to which individuals who attempted to kill themselves could be considered criminally responsible for their actions or not responsible by reason of mental illness. To elucidate this gradual transition from state to medical authority over suicide in Canada, we analyse narratives of responsibility found in “suicide notes” appended to coroners’ inquests, particularly ways in which the act of suicide was construed by individuals who committed suicide as a rational decision or an individual right and not as a moment of madness or a criminal act

Aesthetics · Art · Criminal law · Criminal responsibility · Criminology · Diminished responsibility · Literature · Medical emergency · Mental health · Mental illness · Narrative · Period (music · Poison control · Political science · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · State (computer science · Suicide prevention · Historical and Scientific Studies · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Medicine · Philosophy · Psychology

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