Why do luminaries commit suicides?

[blazeofglory]

This question keeps me hunting all the time as to why luminaries commit suicides at the height of success and fulfillment? The suicide of David Foster Wallace endorses this fact. I am raising an issue that must concern all of us, for this is such an issue that really has a touch on our minds, for we are of the same discipline: writing. I am a writer and so are you I guess, and of course it keeps us wary of the fact that we are of the same genre or genesis.

Why writers oftentimes seem more perturbed? They are men of letters, and they have something profound to engross themselves in; they remain engaged in something worthwhile by all standards, and what is more they are revered and cared by the society they are in. Hemingway committed suicides, and many others did.

What man seeks in spite of everything is fulfillment in the end and fulfillment can materialize when one stumbles upon a state of mind when a man reaches a pinnacle of success in life. Or when he attains a feat.

Wallace got everything, name, fame and pelf.

I wonder why they become spineless to slay themselves. They give something, or they seem to underpin the morale of their readers but they do something against their teachings.

Of course there can be assorted points of view some to back up and others to disapprove of the view.

I want to lay it open to you for your views.

[qspeechc]

I am far less knowledgeable than many others here, but I will give my thoughts anyhow.
It seems to me that far more "luminaries" do not actually commit suicide, than those that do. However, it would be interesting to know if the prevalence is higher among writers and/or philosophers, or any thinkers.

I do not believe suicide is "spineless" as you put it. No intelligent person ever commited suicide without extremely good reason, and it was surely not an incorrect judgement on their part. If someone truly believes, for whatever reason, that their life is not worth continuing with, they must surely be correct in that, and who are we to judge them? How can we know what their life is for them? How could know themselves better than themselves? I do not believe suicide is shameful in any way.

Perhaps as thinkers-- to speak more broadly-- the more one thinks about life and the world, the more one sees it uglyness, the more one sees the true nature of life. Perhaps life truly is ugly, existence is ugly. I believe so.

[caddy_caddy]

Hi
A friend of mine said to me " NOW I AM SATURATED WITH LIFE "!
At first I laughed then I feared that he would commit suicide.
Saturation : maybe this is the key word...
Best regards

[Cellar Door]

Writers are predisposed to depression, according to modern psych, however the opposite could be true; depressed people could be predisposed to writing (there is also research which supports this view). Depression puts one at a much higher risk for suicide (as we all know), though depression is not a common link in all who end their own lives.

Also, there are enormous pressures that come as a side effect of having achieved fame, especially for something as personal as writing. Writing opens oneself to the outside world for judgment and critique. It is an enormous pressure to have to face. In addition, if one's work was well received, he or she must live up to it in following work, else risk being dismissed as a one-trick pony.

Finally, I must adhere to the diathesis-stress model of illness (not only mental illness, though it is strongly correlated with it-- ex. cancer). The diathesis (predisposition) dictates that a person could have potential for this, such as a child of an alcoholic has tendencies which could inflict alcoholism on them later. The stress of fame, of being judged, of anything, really, would bring the diathesis into life, and one would then act on it. We all have diatheses for many different things; the stress which would reveal them need not ever occur, as such, we would not become those things we have a predisposition to become.