3rd Global Conference: Making Sense Of: Suicide

3rd Global Conference

Making Sense Of: Suicide

Saturday 10th November ? Monday 12th November 2012
Salzburg, Austria

Call For Papers:
Suicide, the deliberate and intentional act of
ending one's life, is an assault on our ideas of
what living is about. Whether we believe that we
have the right to end our own life because we no
longer wish to live, or that suicide is never
morally permissible, the fact that people can
arrange their deaths and that some do, challenges
us to think about the nature of life, and of death.

Suicide is a global problem. For some people it
seems like a sensible solution to the problems of
living, or at least it seems to them that in some
circumstances, it can be a rational and morally
acceptable thing to kill oneself. To others this
seems absurd because, although suicide may solve
the problems that the suicider has been
experiencing, it does so at the expense of their
experiencing anything at all. What's more, it does
so at the expense of friends, loved ones, and
others who are affected, including those who have
to deal practically with its aftermath.

At the inaugural conference of Making Sense Of:
Suicide, we had many vigorous discussions, which
addressed suicide from a wide range of
perspectives, including psychology, sociology,
anthropology, philosophy, psychiatry and the law.
Abstracts are now invited for Making Sense Of:
Suicide 2, for individual contributions or for
symposia of three papers. They should be written
in simple language and for individual
contributions should be no longer than 250 words,
while for symposia they should include a 150 word
overview for each contribution and a 200 word
overview for the whole session. (Please take these
word limits seriously)

Abstracts are especially welcomed that take
seriously the ways in which thinking about and
responding to the human act of suicide may be
enhanced by viewing it from more than one
disciplinary perspective. They may address a wide
range of topics which are hinted at by following
questions:

- Is all deliberate self killing, suicide? Is
suicide always about the desire to be dead? Or
does it sometimes have other meanings? Is suicide
always fatal?
- What's the point of suicide? (Why do people
do it?) Is suicide ever a rational choice? Can
suicide be an act of love? Is it ever an act of hate?
- Why do people suicide in different ways?
What explains the differences in suicide rate, in
different populations? How can we best reduce the
rate of suicide?
- Is suicide harmful, and if so, who does it
harm ? the suicider; his friends and relatives;
onlookers and those who become involved in his
death or in its aftermath? How are people affected
by the suicide of someone they knew or loved? Does
it matter how well they knew him?
- How does suicide relate to other apparently
similar human acts, such as euthanasia and self
harm? Is 'attempted suicide' always about the wish
to die? Or is it sometimes about the attempt to
change the world, or to escape from it for a time?
Are euthanasia and assisted suicide the same? (If
not, how do they differ?) Is it ever OK to assist
another to die? Does the suicider's motivations,
intentions and wishes make a difference to whether
it is OK to assist him in arranging his death?
- Is suicide ever a valid form of political
protest? If a person kills himself to make a
political point, is his death necessarily suicide?
Is suicide bombing, really about suicide?
- Should the desire to suicide be regarded as
an indication that one needs psychiatric or
psychological treatment? Are all suicidal people,
by definition, suffering with a mental illness? Or
can suicide be the result of a rational choice? If
so, in what circumstances is it rational to want
to die?
- How is suicide addressed in literature, fine
art, music, theatre and film? What, if anything,
can clinicians learn from literary authors,
including novelists, poets and playwrights;
artists, musicians and directors in theatre and film?

Papers will also be considered on any related
theme. Abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th
May 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the
conference, a full draft paper should be submitted
by Friday 3rd August 2012.

Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to
both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word,
WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following
information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d)
title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords
E-mails should be entitled: Suicide3 Abstract
Submission

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain
from using footnotes and any special formatting,
characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or
underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts
is planned for the end of the year. All accepted
abstracts will be included in this publication. We
acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper
proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply
from us in a week you should assume we did not
receive your proposal; it might be lost in
cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an
alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs:

Gavin Fairbairn
Leeds Metropolitan University,
Leeds, United Kingdom.
Email: [email protected]

Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Leader, Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Freeland, Oxfordshire,
United Kingdom
Email: [email protected]

The conference is part of the Making Sense Of:
series of research projects, which in turn belong
to the Probing the Boundaries programmes of
Inter-Disciplinary.Net. It aims to bring together
people from different areas and interests to share
ideas and explore discussions which are innovative
and challenging. All papers accepted for and
presented at this conference are eligible for
publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may
be invited to go forward for development into a
themed ISBN hard copy volume.

For further details of the project, please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/making-sense-
of/suicide/

For further details of the conference, please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/making-sense-
of/suicide/call-for-papers/