Suicide: A Personal and Spiritual Decision?

From an existential perspective, human beings have the power (and the influence) to decide about their own lives. Philosophers such as Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre spoke of suicide as the only true “philosophical question.” Camus wrote that “to judge whether life is or is not worth living is to answer the fundamental question of philosophy.”

But in clinical practice, suicide is rarely a freely chosen decision. Mental suffering, especially in depressive, anxious, psychotic, or traumatic states, alters the perception of reality and limits the ability to make clear decisions. From this perspective, suicide is not so much a freely chosen “decision,” but rather the expression of unbearable pain in search of an escape.