UK publication date: 4th September
US publication date: 26th October

What drives a person to take her own life? Does suicide or ‘voluntary death’ have the same meaning today as it had in earlier centuries, and does it have the same meaning in China, India and the Middle East as it has in the West? How should we understand this puzzling phenomenon and how can we explain its patterns and variations over time?

In this wide-ranging comparative study, Marzio Barbagli examines suicide as a socio-cultural, religious and political phenomenon, explaining the reasons that underlie it and the meanings it has acquired in different cultures throughout the world.

Drawing on a vast body of research carried out by historians, anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists and psychologists, Barbagli shows that a satisfactory theory of suicide must move beyond the traditional classifications of suicide and it cannot limit itself to considering the two causes that were highlighted by the great French sociologist Emile Durkheim - namely, social integration and regulation.

Barbagli proposes a new typology of suicides based on individual motives and the significance they give to action - the people for whom and against whom individuals take their lives. There are cultural, political and psychological factors that need to be taken into account.

This new study of suicide sheds fresh light on the cultural differences between East and West and greatly increases our understanding of an often-misunderstood act.