Albert Camus Theory Of Suicide As An Existentialist Reconceptuality And Suicide Case Study

Part One:

Albert Camus’ theory of suicide as an existentialist reconceptualization provides insights on mental illness and the threat of suicide. This theory proposes, that anyone who has committed suicide or attempted suicide, results in the error that is related to mental disorder and irrationality (Roberts 2014:874). This theory, helps better understand the contribution of mental illness and suicide. Camus offers that there are many causes to suicide but the reasons we think to be the most general or obvious were not the ones that were most compelling (Roberts 2014:875). Factors that led to suicide were usually the most un-favourable and not the popular vote. The best way to distinguish this is to deduce the ways that most people ‘think’

If the crisis has affected you in such a way that you feel you are worth no value than you are at high risk of attempting (Roberts 2014:875). Camus proposes that the ‘absurd’ plays a pivotal role in the decision making of your value in life. It is the frustrated encounter of the human desire for life to have a meaning and for life to possess a unity, which is neglected by the sorrows of an individual’s life. Camus makes it an obligation that divorce between the mind and the world that continually disappoints, is fragmented which binds them together making suicide within a ill minded individual chained together (Roberts 2014:875). It is understood through Camus theory that the contradictory encounter between the individuals attempt at suicide is to make sense of life as well as the explanation they create which would enable them to do so. The individual’s existence would have to be deemed ‘absurd’ which claims that their life has no meaning or if it does that they cannot reach full potential of it no matter how they pursue their dreams or fantasies. There is no second-guessing of the self or masking the evidence in which they conclude their life has

However, there are many parts to suicide and mental illness that was left out. Camus never mentioned that some people were born with mental illness due to genetics. The theory only claimed that this illness was derived from bad or horrific experiences in life and that the ‘absurd’ occurred with issues that had arose in life. Camus only talked about individuals whom committed suicide from pain that was caused during their life but not from people whom were born with mental illness. Mental illness is a hard topic to derive because some people develop it and some people are born with it. For example, Jeffrey A. Bridge’s article of adolescent suicide and suicidal behavior, he explains that suicidal behavior is derived from parent’s genetics in some cases. Camus’ theory never talks about children or even adults that had been genetically affected by mental illness. The theory only explains how a horrific event in life contributes to mental illness and the ‘absurd’. With that being said there are many points that Camus makes which I do agree with. Camus theory shows that these ‘horrific’ events that do occur contribute to the suicide of an individual. For example, if someone rapes you, you feel weak and powerless. These emotions cause problems with your consciousness. The individual will begin to think of the value and life. When you are feeling hopeless and powerless you feel as if you are of