Psychological strains found in the suicides of 72 celebrities

Abstract

The interpretation of suicide involves theories from many disciplines, and the strain theory of suicide is a social-psychological model that attempts to account for this complicated behavior. We have earlier explored the presence of psychological strains in a number of diverse samples of suicides and in the present study, we identified the strains experienced throughout the lives as documented in the biographies of 72 celebrities. The biographies were systematically identified through a number of requirements and composed by one of the authors of this study years before the strain theory of suicide was proposed. A graduate student coder, who was unaware of the strain theory of suicide, was hired to carry out a content analysis of the biography essays and categorize the life events and the responses of the suicide in terms of the four types of strains. Of the 72 suicides, one had no strains, one had all the four strains, four had only one, 30 had two, and 36 had three strains. The most common strain was aspiration strain (97%), followed by deprivation strain (89%), value strain (54%) and coping deficiency strain (4%). It is also noted that religious celebrities were more likely to experience value strain, while those celebrities who had experienced a downhill path in their careers were more likely to experience deprivation and coping strains. This analysis of the 72 celebrity suicides supported the strain theory of suicide.