Moral distortion and narrative death
An existential reading of mass murder-suicide
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8133126 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Matias Gay (0009-0008-7006-3978, Estonian-Swedish Mental Health and Suicidology Institute, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 1-19 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-22 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Mortality (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1357-6275 • E-ISSN: 1469-9885 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13576275.2026.2618719 |
| OpenAlex | W7125528171 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 28 |
Suicidal mass violence is often parsed through diagnostic categories, obscuring the symbolic patterns in perpetrators’ communications. This study advances a narrative – existential account of how such communications configure killing and self-destruction through a reflexive, interpretive synthesis of a bounded public corpus. We mapped recurrent metaphors, temporal constriction and ‘time talk’, virtue frames (mercy, justice, duty, glory), and broadcast addressivity without making diagnostic claims. Across cases, messages converge on chronic alienation, narrative collapse, moral absolutism, and scripted performance that culminate in finale/ritual language and staged acts framed as restorative or necessary. Attending to genre features, temporal constriction, and virtue framing yields practice-ready listening cues that complement structured risk tools while minimising sensationalism and perpetrator glorification. We recommend integrating cue-based listening – especially markers of futurelessness, ritual/finale metaphors, and an absolutist moral lexicon – into risk formulation and ethical reporting.
Distortion (music · Existentialism · Meaning (existential · Narrative · Reading (process · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · Homicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse · Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
International Handbook of Threat Assessment
The integrated motivational–volitional model of suicidal behaviour
The emotional dog and its rational tail
The Psychology of Life Stories
The interpersonal theory of suicide.
Murder-suicide
Speaking to the self or others? Exploring existential, relational, and narrative identity in suicide notes using thematic and psychodynamic analysis
Violence is completely normal’
How Moral Beliefs Influence Collective Violence. Evidence From Lynching in Mexico
The Violent True Believer as a "Lone Wolf" - Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Terrorism
On The Meaning of Alienation
The need to belong
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |