Itsemurha suomalaisessa yhteiskunnassa

Abstract

This study will examine the history of suicide in Finnish society. The approach to the problem will be through an examination of the legislation concerning suicide, of popular - beliefs, the attitude of the Church to suicide, the measures taken by officials, and the opinions on suicide during the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th century, with its concomitant factors: facts, attitudes and norms' The questions is one of how the problem posed by suicide was treated and experienced. The study will also treat the facts regarded as being at the background of the suicides. The principal source for the study is a body of statistics, on the surface exact and accurate, but in fact containing large scope for interpretation: statistics on cause of death (official Finnish statistics) and autopsy reports, oral tradition associated with popular beliefs, the classics of suicide research and official documents, both Church and secular. The study shows that the statistical reporting of suicide depends on the -attitudes of Church and civil authorities, their procedures and popular attitudes to suicide. Despite critical reservations about sources, the study shows that there was more than a fourfold increase in suicides in Finland during the period 1811-1920, and that it was not until the 1910s that Finland rose to the top of European suicide statistics. Suicide may also be regarded as a Finnish national cultural trait, associated with manliness. The backgrounds and living circumstances of those who had commited suicide indicated combinations of certain risk and personality factors, eagerly charted by the doctors, legal authorities and researchers of the time. "Secular authorities long regarded suicide as a crime. For the Church it was both a crime and a sin. Popularly the private tragedy was seen as a phenomenon arousing horror, fear and repulsion, due to the influence - of the Church. Furthermore, mystic aspects were appended to this phenomenon.