The Wanganui Chronicle. SATURDAY, DECEBER 10, 1949 DIVORCE AND SUICIDE

Wanganui Chronicle, 10 December 1949, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. SATURDAY, DECEBER 10, 1949 DIVORCE AND SUICIDE

LJIGH authorities in Denmark arc concerned at the country’s divoi’ee and suicide rates being the highest in the world. The Statistician to the Minister of Health believes that her country’s twin problems are connected. It would perhaps be nearer the mark to regard the two phenomena as but facets of the one problem. It was early discovered that celibacy was undesirable, not only from the standpoint of the continuity of the race, but for the welfare of the individual as such. In the words of the Book of Genesis, “It is not good that man should live alone.’’ Passing over the fact that in this modern world it. is practically impossible for a man to live alone, it is true that it is a dangerous policy for anyone to step out of the general pattern of life.. To make such an attempt, involves the individual in a large number of reaccommodafions. The individual does not. appreciate his or her own manysidedness. Each man has a personality which is peculiar to himself. But while personality is individual it is not, and never can be, an isolated factor. Human personality is in considerable-meas-ure a social product. One of the striking lines in the film “Fallen Idol” was that in which the husband declares that “we make each other” and asks to what degree he is responsible for his wife’s difficult disposition. Man needs human society, not only' in a neighbourly way, but in a more intimate relationship and this he can only obtain within a family group. Here will be found opportunity for the development of the affections which are an integral part of man’s makeup. It extends to the opposite sex and to the generations that went before and which come after, for man is so fashioned that, he must look to the past and to the future. Old age must be comforted and provided for and that is the task of the present generation, and the rising generation must be sustained and trained for the taking up of the responsibilities of the future. Miss Lindhardt, chief of the Ministry of Health’s Statistical Department in Copenhagen, says that present figures showed that, in proportion to the total population, two or three times more Danes were committing suicide than Swedes. Norwegians, British and Dutch. Ak first glance this is an impressive statement for the Danes are a very well-balanced people and are in large measure of the same stock racially as the British and the Dutch and the Norwegians. Comparative statistics, however, are dangerous materials with which to deal. Before it can be accepted that the suicide rate of Denmark is actually higher, the law and the procedure which determines what is and what is not a suicide must be examined. If not only the law. but the administration of that, law, are comparable, then the statistical results may be examined on a common base. But it is first desirable to make sure that the method of determining a suicide is the same at each end of the stick.

With a population of over four millions, Denmark has a prison population of 2500 men and 120 women, which compares favourably with New Zealand’s prison population of 1140 in a population of under two millions. But Denmark has been an occupied country during the. war and New Zealand has escaped most of the dysgenic influences of war. Denmark lived by exporting her work and by importing raw materials. In such an economy those engaged in the commerce and manufacturing have been required to meet, many difficulties and to do so in the face of a very depressing future and this without the stimulus of having lost a war. It should not occasion surprise, that the divorce and suicide rate in the towns should have risen to a high degree.

In a highly competitive world two related factors make their appearance: a lengthy period of education for professional and administrative careers and a delaying of marriage until nearer to middle life. A period of prolonged strain takes the place of a period of natural growth, both physically and emotionally. Before the green tree has had time to set it is subjected to a severe strain which must twist it. out of its natural shape. “Suicide and intellect are closely connected. It seems as if we cannot stand too much thinking,” declares Miss Lindhardt. This may be true, for 110 man is made for thought alone. “By the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread” is the necessary condition of healthy living. To demand of young people that they shall devote themselves predominantly to “acquiring an education” which too often means acquiring the qualification to earn the sort of living one’s parents expect, of the individual is to invite disaster. Too often the “acquired education” has left, out the essential feature of any sound educational endeavour and that is acquiring the art, of living from day to day and from year to year. Too many ambitious men confine themselves within a. limited area of activity in order to acquire a materially satisfactory position. This is no more than putting oneself in prison. Prisoners are never congenial company and it is not surprising that among the allegedly educated a strong disharmony manifests itself. When that condition has been established it is not. surprising that domestic, relations arc lacking in essential harmony and divorce becomes more frequent. When, to these factors that have emerged more and more in advanced communities where opportunity is to an increasing degree dependent upon the passing of examinations, is added the aftermath of a war, it is not surprising that divorce should be at a high level.

The relationship between divorce and suicide may be more apparent than real. It is to be expected that persons of pronounced instability of character should, under any circumstances, find their marriages inharmonious. It may be that divorce only registers a fact, that is the marriage has failed to provide that for which the marriage was contracted. To deny divorce to the parties to a marriage that has ceased to be a marriage improves the statistics but it, does not alter the social problem. Where, as was formerly the case in France, divorce was difficult to obtain, illegal unions became frequent. There are twenty departments in Paris and anion-legal union was termed a marriage in the twentyfirst department. A low divorce rate does not mean a high standard of morality; it may result in the reverse. Those who, from instability of character, are unable to sustain a marriage could be expected to give evidence of their temperamental instability in ways other than marriage breakdowns. Suicide is evidence of temperamental instability in the extreme and so the same class that qualifies for the divorce court could reasonably be expected to provide a fairly high percentage of the suicides. On the other hand there is no denying that where a marriage continues and one partner devotes himself or herself to the nursing of the other and weaker member there is a greater chance of the latter being kept out of the suicide class.but that does not. take that person out of the potential suicide class. Whether the saner party to a marriage should be expected to carry self-sacrifice to the degree required in order to preserve what is only too often a worthless individual from self destruction or attempt at self destruction, or apparent or theatrical conduct intended to be taken as an attempt at suicide is another matter. It is arguable whether legal systems should be fashioned to impose a burden upon the saner parties to a marriage. It. is a matter for a higher plane of conduct, that of ethics and religion. In such a field the essential element is the willingness of the real victim to sacrifice himself or herself for the sake of the other: compulsion simply doesn’t work. Suicide, like murder, is an emulative crime. The more there is of it the more there is likely to be. The question may well be asked whether any good purpose is server! by giving publicity to suicides and attempts at suicides. Many attempts at. suicide" are not intended to succeed and many suicides can be assumed to be attempts that have succeeded too well for the actor. The psychology of suicide merits being given much more consideration than appears yet to have been bestowed upon it.