Countering Suicidism: Historical Moments as Guides for Contemporary Activist Entry

Contemporary US public discourse, psychiatric practices, and legal policies often frame suicidal people as inherently incapable of understanding their own realities and making their own healthcare decisions. This subjects suicidal people to various human rights abuses, including carceral care practices such as involuntary hospitalization. Alexandre Baril refers to this unique form of sanist-ableist oppression as “suicidism” and calls for the use of disability and Mad justice frameworks to challenge such practices. To build on his theorizations, this article unpacks suicide as it has been conceptualized—and notably medicalized—throughout the course of Western thought. It focuses specifically on historical conceptualizations that may have played a role in informing present-day suicidist beliefs about the nature of suicidality and how suicidal people should be treated. The article offers concrete inroads for activists and scholars aiming to resist suicidism in their research and advocacy by unpacking how suicidist beliefs have been challenged in the past and posing critical questions about how these prior activisms might inform future resistance.