Why Are Suicides So Widespread in Catholic Lithuania?

Religion as a protective factor against suicide was introduced in Durkheim's theory of suicide and analysed from various perspectives in multiple studies. The Lithuanian case is intriguing because before WWII, along with Catholic Poland, it showed much lower suicide rates than its Protestant ne...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Religions
Main Author: Gailienė, Danutė (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: MDPI [2018]
In: Religions
Further subjects:B Religion
B Lithuania
B suicide rates
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:Religion as a protective factor against suicide was introduced in Durkheim's theory of suicide and analysed from various perspectives in multiple studies. The Lithuanian case is intriguing because before WWII, along with Catholic Poland, it showed much lower suicide rates than its Protestant neighbours Latvia and Estonia. However, today Lithuania is among the leading countries in terms of the prevalence of suicide. Interestingly, not much has changed in Lithuania in terms of religious denomination—about 80% of population call themselves Catholic. The aim of this article was to explore which factors might have affected religions' protective function against suicide during radical historical processes. The method of study consists of an analysis of historical sources, and of recent studies in suicidology and sociology of religion about suicide and religion in Lithuania. The results of this analysis show that two factors seem to be most important—heroicizing resistance suicides and experiencing long-term politics of atheisation.
ISSN:2077-1444
Contains:Enthalten in: Religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3390/rel9030071