Interesting piece in this week's New Scientist on the attempts by psychiatrists (particularly those with advanced neuromania) to explain suicidal behaviour through primarily biological means (in terms of brain abnormalities, genetics and epigenetics)
Shame really that the conversation starts off from such a poor premise: "Until the 1980s, people who committed suicide were considered, by definition, to be depressed" (i.e. to be a function of individual pathology).
As we wrote early on in the history of this blog, the outbreaks of suicide that many populations see are often better explained by social means than as a function of individual agents.
In other words, by what happens in the space between us rather than the space between our ears.
Just striking how wilful psychiatrists and their like are in ignoring the social perspective. Shame - Durkheim is very beautiful and clearly written.