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KMID : 0904520070200010153
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Health and Medical Sociology
2007 Volume.20 No. 1 p.153 ~ p.175
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Social Psychological Exploration on the Collective Suicide of Families in Korea
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Lee Mi-Sook
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Abstract
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study was to explore the collective suicide of families as a social problem in Korea, taking into account the changes in social structure and the familial and psychological characteristics as well. Given no formal statistics, data of familial suicides were collected from the contents analysis on the articles of major daily newspapers from 1995 through 2005. The time-series analysis showed the rapid increase in the frequency of familial suicide in 1998, which was the right after the IMF economic crisis, and its continuous increase since 2001, in which the economic bi-polarization has been vivid among Korean families. Concerning the family characteristics, the most vulnerable group was parents aged thirties suffering with family conflicts in the chronic economic deprivation or the sudden drop of socioeconomic status. Parents’ suicide following the homicide of their own children was the mostly committed type of collective suicides of families. In the context of economic bi-polarization of Korean society, the socially alienated families’ relative deprivation, helplessness, lack of self differentiation were discussed as possible psychological factors of committing the collective suicide. In results, this study suggested the policy development to construct the social safety system and to meet the socially and economically alienated families’ deprivation and to educate them with the healthy family ethics and values.
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KEYWORD
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Family Collective Suicide, Socioeconomic Crisis, Helplessness, Comparative Level, Lack of Self-Differentiation
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