Huh. Just read this blog entry on suicide: [link] . Talks about the high suicide rate in Japan and mentions the suicide of R. Budd Dwyer while he was giving a press conference. Also mentioned this case of public suicide which I've never heard of (I'm whitefonting just because it's morbid and depressing - it's not particularly gross).

Another chilling incident is that of Christine Chubbuck, who was a news reporter who shot herself during a broadcast. She went on the air and gave this reading...

"In keeping with Channel 40's policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts in living color, we bring you another first, an attempted suicide."

...At which point she pulled out a .38 and shot herself in the back of the head.

Freaky. I mean, suicide is freaky enough, but it's sorta' understandable in cases of, say, severe depression. Public suicide is... I just don't get it... the ultimate in passive-aggressiveness?

Man, tommy, that is depressing. I'm not sure it's passive-aggresive so much as it's one last bid to be noticed in a world that seems to be passing them by. In her case, her job just happened to provide a perfect platform. How sad.

Um, OK, I ended up at this Wikepedia article on "unusual deaths" - this one made me laugh:

456 BC: Aeschylus, Greek dramatist, according to legend, died when a vulture, mistaking his bald head for a stone, dropped a tortoise on it.

If "comedy equals tragedy plus time," I think enough time has passed on this one....

[link]

I can't ever label suicide as passive-aggressive. It's pretty much the opposite of passive, you know?

I'd heard about Chubbuck, but I have some odd books. Actually, if it's the one I'm thinking of, the author was friends with Sylvia Plath.

Slipping in under the wire to wish Sean a Happy Birthday!!! (It's still his b'day where he lives, right??)

Also, {{Sophia}}. I am so sorry.

I can't ever label suicide as passive-aggressive. It's pretty much the opposite of passive, you know?

Well, it's the, "You'll be sorry when I'm dead / and all this guilt will be on your head," thing. (Quote from The Police.)

I'm also thinking of a friend's uncle, who killed himself in his wife's kitchen in a way calculated to cause the most distress to her, after leaving her a suicide note blaming her for the suicide.

Or is that just not passive-aggressive?

"You'll be sorry when I'm dead / and all this guilt will be on your head,"

I suspect (but can't honestly know) that most suicides are past that. The failed suicides, you betcha that's what is in their minds. The ones who slash the wrists the wrong direction, take 10 aspirin and panic, put a plastic bag over their head but don't tie it shut--all passive/aggresive behaviors. The ones that succeed because they thought it out and planned it to the last detail? They could care less; they wanted the pain to stop and it did.

The ones that succeed because they thought it out and planned it to the last detail? They could care less; they wanted the pain to stop and it did.

I agree, but I think a small percentage of these can still be passive-agressive. I think in most of these "competent" suicides, the person is thinking, "No one cares what happens to me anyway, so I'm only affecting myself." But some "competent" suicides the person could also be thinking, "This will show them."

Hey! Strega's awake! Strega should pick up the phone...

Or is that just not passive-aggressive?

That, I think. It's not that I'm disagreeing with how you're describing the mindset of some (I feel like I need to emphasize some) suicides -- just that I think passive-aggressive is the wrong term for it. Even if it's "this will show them," that's not passive-aggressive. It's aggressive.

I may be reacting weirdly to the discussion, so factor that in. Not in a bad way... Hrm. I think "passive-aggressive" has specific connotations to me.