Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T18:41:15.887Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Suicide as altruism: A Darwinian perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

Riadh T Abed
Riadh T Abed*
Affiliation:
Mental Health Services, Rotherham District General Hospital, Moorgate Road, Rotherham S60 2UD, and, University of Sheffield, England
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

There has been increased interest recently in the implications of Darwinian theory on psychology, psychiatry and in medicine generally. As a result a large number of publications have appeared that attempt to reformulate a range of psychiatric disorders in the light of evolutionary theory. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the subject of suicide from the evolutionary perspective with some notable exceptions. The purpose of this brief paper is to bring the Darwinian perspective to the notice of a wider psychiatric readership hoping that this will add a further dimension to the debate on suicide and selfdestructive behaviour. Darwinia n theory had found it difficult to account for the existence of altruistic behavioural strategies in social animals until it was explained by Hamilton that the focus for selection was not the individual but the gene. Altruism here refers to any behaviour that reduces the reproductive fitness of the donor while increasing the reproductive fitness of the recipient. According to Hamilton's formulation (the kin selection theory) the individual will behave in a nepotistic manner (ie. altruistically towards kin) as this will enhance the overall chances of his genes to pass to the next generation not only through his own descendants but through non-descendant kin, a measure he termed ‘inclusive fitness’. Therefore it would not be surprising that individuals would be more likely to behave altruistically towards kin than non-kin.

Type
Perspective
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , December 1997 , pp. 144 - 146
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Gilbert, P. Depression: the evolution of poweriessness. Hove: Erlbaum, 1992.Google Scholar
2.Nesse, RM, Williams, GC. Evolution and healing: the new science of Darwinian medicine. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1995.Google Scholar
3.Stevens, A, Price, J. Evolutionary psychiatry: a new beginning. London: Routledge, 1996.Google Scholar
4.deCatanzaro, D. Suicide and self-damaging behaviour: a sociobiological perspective. New York: Academic Press, 1981.Google Scholar
5.Lester, D. An evolutionary theory of suicide. In: The Biochemical basis of suicide. Springfield IL: Charles C Thomas, 1988; (11–13).Google Scholar
6.Hamilton, WD. The genetical evolution of social behaviour, I. J Theor Biol 1964; 7: 1–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
7.Hamilton, WD. The genetical evolution of social behaviour, II. J Theor Biol 1964; 7: 17–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
8.Trivers, RL. The evolution of reciprocal altruism. Q Rev Biol 1971; 46: 35–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9.Axelrod, R, Hamilton, WD. The evolution of cooperation. Science 1981; 211: 1390–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
10.Maynard Smith, J. Evolution and the theory of games. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11.Durkheim, E. Suicide. New York: Free Press, 1951.Google Scholar
12.Maris, RW. Pathways to suicide: a survey of self-destructive behaviour. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1981.Google Scholar
13.Kelleher, MJ. Suicide: some ethical implications. Ir J Psych Med 1996; 13(4): 162–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14.Leighton, AH, Hughes, CC. Notes on Eskimo patterns of suicide. Southwestern J Anthropology 1955;11:327–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15.Brown, PJ, Konner, M. An anthropological perspective on obesity. Ann NY Acad Sci 1987; 499: 29–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
16.Williams, GC. Adaptation and natural selection. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966.Google Scholar
17.Ridley, M. The origins of virtue. London: Viking, 1996.Google Scholar
18.Malinowski, B. Crime and custom in savage society. Paterson, NJ: Littefield, Adams & Co, 1962.Google Scholar
19.Medawar, PB. The uniqueness of the individual. London: Mthuen, 1957.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20.Williams, GC. Pleiotropy, natural selection, and the evolution of senescence. Evolution 1957; 11:398–411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21.Appleby, L. Suicide in psychiatric patients: risk and prevention. Br J Psychiatry 1992; 161: 749–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
22.Oyebode, F. Choosing death: the moral status of suicide. Psychiatric Bull 1996; 20: 85–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar