Motivations

Here's a link to an opinion piece about Female Suicide Bombers.

It's tempting to assign and tie violent actions of females to instincts for protecting their progeny. One has only to watch Animal Planet and other programs to be reminded of that instinct.

That is likely a contributing factor, but on its own is not likely to be the deciding factor which claims the minds of women who blow themselves up and take as many with them as they can.

The loss of all hope has to be a huge factor, as is the accompanying, debilitating acknowledgement that one is powerless to resist. The ultimate act of humans who believe that they are in such a positon of powerlessness is to demonstrate that they are not powerless and back up that claim by taking the lives of those on whom they project blame and taking their own lives in the process.

Psychiatrists and psychologists who study such things often tell those left behind that suicide is the ultimate "fuck you" message.

I am the son of a mother who took her own life and am not writing about this in an abstract and academic sense. Having thought about this for the past 41 years, I've come to appreciate, if not understand, what level of hopelessnes can build up to such an extent that one actually wants to end one's own life, and in doing so is willing, even eager, in such a deranged state of mind, to take the lives of others in the process.

While my mother didn't take anyone else out with her physically she did take out her husband, daughter and son emotionally; and left a disturbing legacy for not only those who physically survived her suicide, but also the children of her daughter and son, not all of whom knew her in life, but came to learn that she died by her own hand. The taking out emotionally of family members survives generations.



Leanderthal, Lighthouse Keeper