Suicide and Self-Damaging Behavior: A Sociobiological Perspective

Suicide and Self-Damaging Behavior: A Sociobiological Perspective reviews the status of suicide and other exceptions to the prevailing regularities of behavior. This book discusses the apparent anomaly of self-destructive behavior; current incidence of suicide and self-injury; self-destructiveness in other species; and biological fitness and social ecology of suicide. The pro-suicidal gene expression and natural selection; death concept; breakdown of other life-preserving factors with coping failure; and selection processes and altruism are also elaborated. This text likewise covers the chronic self-abuse, risk taking, and self-injurious or self-mutilative behavior. This publication is a good source for anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists, and social scientists concerned with self-destructive behavior.

Table of Contents:
Preface 1. The Apparent Anomaly of Self-Destructive Behavior Assumptions about the Nature of Adaptive Behavior Assumptions about Innate Determination versus Learning, and the Influence of Natural Selection The Problem of Self-Destructiveness A Précis of the Arguments 2. The Current Incidence of Suicide and Self-Injury Suicide Parasuicide or Attempted Suicide Chronic Suicide and Risk Taking Self-Injurious or Self-Mutilative Behavior Conclusions 3. Historical and Cross-Cultural Perspective The History of Suicide Suicide in Primitive Cultures Modern Ethnic, Racial, and Cultural Differences Conclusions 4. Self-Destructiveness in Other Species "Suicide" among Social Insects Migration, Emigration, and Population Dispersion Kin Selection and Parental Investment Self-Injury in Captivity and Experimental Conditions A Laboratory "Suicide Paradigm" The "Suicide-Death" Phenomenon Other Instances Conclusions 5. Biological Fitness and the Social Ecology of Suicide Proximate Motivation of Suicide Suicide in Childhood Suicide in Adolescence and Early Adulthood Age and Reproductive Status in Adult Suicide Other Trends in Adult Suicide Summary and Interpretation 6. Cultural Evolution and Suicide Technology and the Origin of Suicide Transitions in Methods and Technology Cognition and Suicide The Death Concept Imitation and Vicarious Learning Summary and Conclusions 7. Stress, Pathology, and Suicide Maladaptive States and Inheritance Environmental Stressors, Gene Expression, and Maladaptiveness Suicide and Psychopathology Rate of Adaptation to Harsh and Novel Environmental Contingencies Pathogenic Conditions, Culture, and the Social Ecology of Suicide 8. Coping Failure, Senescence, Gene Expression, and Suicide Prosuicidal Gene Expression and Natural Selection The Medawar-Williams Hypothesis, Senescence, and Death Breakdown of Other Life-Preserving Factors with Coping Failure Other Facets of Death and Senescence Genetics and Suicide Other Indirect Evidence of Genetic Involvement Reconciling Gene-Expression and Cultural-Learning Involvement in Suicide 9. Altruism and Suicide Selection Processes and Altruism Gene Sharing among Individuals Relative Strengths of Different Orders of Selection Kin Selection and Human Suicide Group Benefit and Human Suicide Aging, Reproductive Status, and Altruism Modern Conditions and Exceptional or Aberrant Cases Conclusions 10. Suicide, Physiology, and Behavioral Predispositions The Euphoria-Dysphoria Dimension Brain Reinforcement or Reward Mechanisms Stress, Hormones, and Neurochemistry Monoamines and Suicide Physiological Pain Mechanisms and Suicide Conclusions 11. Ethics and Suicide Ethics as Modulators of Suicide Frequency Ethics of Suicide 12. Limitations and Qualifications Suicide and Genetics Exceptional Cases Life Out of Context Limits on the Predictive Nature of the Hypotheses The Frequency of Suicide Biases in Statistics on Suicide Is Suicide a Unitary Phenomenon? The Species Generality of the Phenomenon Cognition, Learning, and Culture Revisited 13. Suicide: A Synthesis The State of Modern Suicidology Imperfections in Biological Adaptation Coping Strategies and Life Events Coping Failure and Suicide Mediation of Motivational Changes Accompanying Coping Failure 14. Parasuicide and Suicide Definitions of Parasuicide and Biases in Data Social Ecology of Parasuicide Followup Studies of Parasuicides Lethality of the Suicide Attempt Conclusions 15. Chronic Self-Abuse, Risk Taking, and Other Self-Damaging Behavior Chronic Self-Abuse Risk Taking Other Self-Damaging Behavioral Patterns Summary and Conclusions 16. Self-Injurious or Self-Mutilative Behavior The Role of Learning Physiological Malformation and Damage Abnormalities in Environment Learning Revisited Relationship to Adaptation 17. Toward an Expansion of Research Paradigms Self-Damaging Behavior: A Supersynthesis Critical Issues for Research Final Statement References Author Index Subject Index