Copycat suicide
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"One of the earliest known associations between the media and suicide arose from Goethe's novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers. Soon after its publication in 1774, young men began to mimic the main character by dressing in yellow pants and blue jackets. In the novel, Werther shoots himself with a pistol after he is rejected by the woman he loves, and shortly after its publication there were reports of young men using the same method to kill themselves in acts of hopelessness. This resulted in the book being banned in several places. Hence the term "Werther effect", used in the technical literature to designate copycat suicides."--Sholem Stein |
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A copycat suicide is defined as a duplication or copycat of another suicide that the person attempting suicide knows about either from local knowledge or due to accounts or depictions of the original suicide on television and in other media. Sometimes this is known as a Werther effect, following the Werther novel of Goethe.
See also
In art
- Heathers, a 1989 black comedy film in which the ostensible suicides of popular high school students spur copycat attempts.
- Suicide Club (film), a 2002 Japanese horror film which revolves largely around a string of nationwide copycat suicides.
