Thoughts that have come to mind from reading Graffiti's blog (http://graffiti99.blogspirit.com/) on suicide and how people have trouble saying the word "suicide" or "kill yourself". One of the things we have been taught in our training on suicide is the need to be clear about what the individual is thinking about. So rather than saying "Are you going to do something silly?", or "Are you thinking of hurting yourself?", we are taught to ask the direct question: "Are you thinking of killing yourself?". It was quite interesting to see how many people had difficulty in saying the direct words and would beat around the bush. Some people fear that if we name the act, then it is more likely to happen. That the person's words have the power to make someone kill themselves.
So what is the power in these words? What do they mean to people? What's the Child scare about actually verbalising what's happening.
We are told that words have power. That "black" people are not really "black" but Aborigines, indigenous people, African American etc. These are politically correct terms to use today. People believe that if you change the words, you change the connotation and thereby change people's feeling about a certain topic.
How true is this? How much really changes when you change a word? If I change the word suicide to "glopide" will this actually change people's attitude to the act of killing themselves. Will the magical thinking stop if I change the word? Or will the magical thinking simply shift to the new word?
Is it really true, that by changing the words we change the perspective about an act? Or will people's attitudes and beliefs only change through education and learning? Death is a scary topic in our society. We talk about "gone", "passed over", "gone to heaven (or a better place)". We don't often talk about "he died".
The same would happen with the word "glopide" over time. It would eventually have the same connotations as "suicide" with the same magical thinking that the word has the power to make something happen.
So what is the power of words? Is it the magical thinking that goes with words? Do words actually have the power that humans give them? Can we change the power of words simply by changing the word for the same act?
Madeleine
Thursday, 17 April 2008
2 comments:
Sometimes we don't use a word because of fear of offending; like 'black' in your example.
Other times I think we don't use a word to avoid thinking about what it means in our lives.
I was somewhat amused last month when I saw my doctor for my anti depressant pills - dosage being upped. He asked me 'do you have any thoughts of self harm?' I laughed in my head as self harm is very different to suicide. And I guess that is the question he meant to ask. Damn stupid question to ask too. Cos if you were you're not going to tell him. They just ask to cover their ass. But he was a kid so I guess he doesn't get it.
Interesting point Kahless, that people don't want to think about what a certain word means to them.
had to laugh at you doc's comment. So he feels he's covered his ass and you may or may not be feeling suicidal. But hey, at least he asked that much. I know doc's who wouldn't even go that far
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