"Indikator på samfunnets patologi". Om DDR og suicidraters politiske betydning
Engelsk titel: "Indicator of society's pathology": GDR and the political significance of suicide rates
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Författare:
Thorvik, Arne
Språk: Nor
Antal referenser: 24
Dokumenttyp:
Artikel
UI-nummer: 12013201
Sammanfattning
This article deals with suicide rates in the former GDR (German Democratic Republic) during the decades this state was existent (1949–90), and presents possible explanations to the fact that these rates were among the highest in Europe. Next, the article discusses how the phenomenon of suicide was evaluated, ideologically and according to research, within a state based on Marxist philosophy. A well-known case (the Rev. Oskar Brüsewitz) is mentioned. Extensively, the article aims to illustrate that suicide rates are not only a restricted medical variable. A political significance (“indicator of social pathology”) is easily attributed. It seems obvious that high suicide rates were contrary to the official project of presenting GDR as a model state. This is further supported by the fact that suicide rates were increasingly classified by the regime during the nineteen-sixties and seventies. In addition, the article exemplifies that a political significance has been attributed even to Scandinavian suicide rates. In the concluding remarks, the author discusses whether it might be justified to consider suicide rates an indicator of the function (or dysfunction) of a political system.