The Family, Love, and Suicide in Early Modern Geneva

Bibliographic Data

ID6080392
AuthorsJeffrey R Watts (0000-0003-4579-7562, University of Mississippi, corresponding author), Jeffrey R Watt (University of Mississippi)
Year1996
Volume21
Issue1
Pages63-86
Publication date1996-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Family History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0363-1990 • E-ISSN: 1552-5473
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/036319909602100105
PMID11609025
OpenAlexW2022683935
LanguageEN
Citations received8

Analysis of criminal proceedings and death records for early modem Geneva reveals an explosion in suicides after 1750. New attitudes toward courtship, marriage, and the family contributed to this dramatic increase, as unprecedented numbers of people took their lives because of family concerns, such as marital breakdown, unhappy love stories, and deaths of family members, Greater interest in the companionate marriage was central to these changes. After 1750, marriage, even more than parenthood, offered immunity to suicide, as married people were underrepresented among those who took their lives. Although men constituted the large majority of suicides, women and men shared the growing emphasis on conjugal sentiment, which cut across class lines

Cohabitation · Courtship · Criminology · Marital status · Medical emergency · Poison control · Political science · Population · Sociology · Suicide prevention · Demography · Gender Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Medicine · Psychology

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