The National Institute of Mental Health is part of the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services. They offer an FAQ page on suicide at
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/research/suicidefaq.cfm.
One entry reads:
Why do men commit suicide more often than women do?
More than four times as many men as women die by suicide;
but women attempt suicide more often during their lives
than do men, and women report higher rates of depression.
Several explanations have been offered: a) Completed suicide
is associated with aggressive behavior that is more common in
men, and which may in turn be related to some of the
biological differences identified in suicidality. b) Men and
women use different suicide methods. Women in all countries
are more likely to ingest poisons than men. In countries
where the poisons are highly lethal and/or where treatment
resources scarce, rescue is rare and hence female suicides
outnumber males. More research is needed on the social-
cultural factors that may protect women from completing
suicide, and how to encourage men to recognize and seek
treatment for their distress, instead of resorting to suicide.
In response, I wrote:
To: wittenbc@mail.nih.gov, ti4g@nih.gov
Subject: Gender bias in mental health care
Dear Clarissa Wittenberg and Thomas Insel,
I am disappointed in the gender bias shown by your answer to, "Why do
men commit suicide more often than women do?" Rather than explain it,
it is an example of the reason.
The first sentence contains a "but women," reflecting the
answer's "so what" attitude toward men since it then spends the
answer avoiding men's suicide to only talk about women's. (By the
way, men commit more suicides in all countries with the possible
exception of China. The author might get their facts straight.)
The psychologists I've heard suggest that women attempt
suicide as a cry for help. That is, they only attempt it, confident
of getting the attention they seek. Men commit it exactly because
they know they will never get attention, which your website confirms.
The answer dismisses the fourfold greater male suicide rate
as male aggression, which blames men for theirs while being concern
for women's. No study has ever supported this bias. Men and women
may express their aggression in different forms but there's every
reason to consider both genders equally aggressive. Love, hate, and
aggression are not gender-specific. Indeed, the evidence suggests
that women commit more aggression exactly because these gender
biases allow them to get away with it. (See When She Was Bad, Odd
Girl Out, etc.)
Men commonly have more outbound energy than women. Calling
that aggression is the very bias to which I refer. I even wonder if
your own science and research contributed to your website, or only
superstition.
It always surprises me how the last thing psychologists
look to for why people behave as they do is the way they are being
treated. It isn't mentioned, but a major source of the overall
discrepancy is that divorced men commit TEN TIMES the suicides of
divorced women. You don't suppose the different rates reflect how
men are treated by society verses how women are treated, and that
this answer is a fine example? How can mental health professionals
cure anything while an instrument of the very forces whose effects
it seeks to cure?
Since women go to the doctor four times more often than
men, some say the medical industry is geared toward them. Perhaps
it's good that NIMH ignores the needs of men. If you offered anything
it, too, would probably be inappropriate for men's needs.
Copyright © 2004 K.C.Wilson. This article first appeared at
Menstuff.
Used by permission of author.
