Breaking the silence of suicide

Concordia University researcher uses the arts to reveal the cross-cultural implications of suicide

2013-05-06

(Press-News.org) This news release is available in French.

Montreal, May 6, 2013 – Just over a month ago, a young high school student from Halifax committed suicide after photos of her being raped were posted on the Internet. Her story wasn't just about bullying. It was also about the complex feelings her friends and family faced with her decision to take her own life.

Such a reaction is common to cultures around the word. New research from Concordia University shows that, no matter where it occurs, a veil of shame and sense of taboo surround suicide. These attitudes often force those affected to grieve alone and can produce feelings of helplessness and despair.

Yehudit Silverman, a professor in Concordia University's Department of Creative Arts Therapies, has focused much of her career on the issue of suicide. Having written and directed a film called The Hidden Face of Suicide, Silverman has now published new findings on the cross-cultural commonalities associated with suicide in the peer-reviewed journal, The Arts in Psychotherapy.

The article, co-authored by art therapist, Fiona Smith, and drama therapist, Mary Burns, describes how using the arts can help create dialogue between people from diverse cultural communities, all affected by suicide, so that they may begin to heal and hope. "When a subject is taboo, it important to find ways other than words to express feelings," explains Silverman. "Using the arts can be a powerful means of sharing what feels inexpressible, and helping to break through the silence and stigma which still surrounds suicide"

The results of Silverman's findings are based on an innovative symposium, held in Montreal in June 2010, which brought together people from Inuit, Mohawk, Jewish, Christian, Baha'i, South-Asian Canadian, senior and LGBTQ communities. At the beginning of the symposium, members from each group performed a non-verbal presentation to show their community's perspective on suicide. These powerful presentations allowed participants to see the differences and similarities in how each culture views suicide.

Participants worked in cross-cultural groups, organized according to what themes and identities spoke most intensely to their own experience of suicide. They were then able to explore perspectives and feelings that brought them to the symposium. All work was done through creative artistic expressions of the group.

One group built a tepee with a white mask with tears drawn on at its base. A bowl of water was placed in front of the structure, circled by candles and cedar branches, with feathers placed in the circle to represent a victim of suicide. "We want to create a ritual and a safe space to respond to suicide awareness; a ceremony to create openness, sharing and a connection to the earth," explained one participant. Another project involved the creation of banners, combining text, colour, images and objects, to reflect themes and feelings emerging among participants.

Using such exercises over the course of the symposium, the researchers pinpointed cross-cultural themes about suicide that emerged from the discussion and creative expressions of the participants. These themes included suicide as taboo, hiding and isolation, multi-generational impact, witnessing others and being witnessed. As Silverman points out: "Participants realized for the first time that the taboo of suicide touches every culture, every community, every class and status." The project was a success on two levels: using art to facilitate suicide awareness and finding themes that transcend cultural boundaries. Explains Silverman, "Our findings offer a new method of bringing out complex feelings associated with suicide. By showing that different communities and cultures are all connected around this issue, we can begin to help with healing – and with and breaking the silence."

### Related Links: Concordia University's Department of Creative Arts Therapies http://creativeartstherapies.concordia.ca/index.php Yehudit Silverman on Research @ Concordia http://www.concordia.ca/explore/#!/profile/63/ Yehudit Silverman's website http://www.yehuditsilverman.com/

Media contact: Cléa Desjardins
Senior Advisor, External Communications
Concordia University
Tel: 514-848-2424, ext. 5068
Cell: 514-909-2999
e-mail: clea.desjardins@concordia.ca
Web: concordia.ca/media-relations
Twitter: twitter.com/CleaDesjardins END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New analysis suggests wind, not water, formed mound on Mars

2013-05-06

A roughly 3.5-mile high Martian mound that scientists suspect preserves evidence of a massive lake might actually have formed as a result of the Red Planet's famously dusty atmosphere, an analysis of the mound's features suggests. If correct, the research could dilute expectations that the mound holds evidence of a large body of water, which would have important implications for understanding Mars' past habitability. Researchers based at Princeton University and the California Institute of Technology suggest that the mound, known as Mount Sharp, most likely emerged as ...

Solid-state controllable light filter may protect preterm infants from disturbing light

2013-05-06

Preterm infants appear to mature better if they are shielded from most wavelengths of visible light, from violet to orange. But it has been a challenge to develop a controllable light filter for preterm incubators that can switch between blocking out all light--for sleeping--and all but red light to allows medical staff and parents to check up on the kids when they're awake. Now, in a paper accepted for publication in Applied Physics Letters, a journal of the American Institute of Physics, researchers describe a proof-of-concept mirror that switches between reflective and ...

Scaling up gyroscopes: From navigation to measuring the Earth's rotation

2013-05-06

Accurately sensing rotation is important to a variety of technologies, from today's smartphones to navigational instruments that help keep submarines, planes, and satellites on course. In a paper accepted for publication in the American Institute of Physics' journal Review of Scientific Instruments, researchers from the Technical University of Munich and New Zealand's University of Canterbury discuss what are called "large ring laser gyroscopes" that are six orders of magnitude more sensitive than gyroscopes commercially available. In part, the increased sensitivity comes ...

Research finds new cause for common lung problem

2013-05-06

New research has found that in cases of lung edema, or fluid in the lungs, not only do the lungs fail to keep water out as previously believed, but they are also allowing water to pump in. "Usually, our lungs pump fluid out of the air space, and it was previously believed that this pump mechanism just stopped when people had lung edema," said Dr. Wolfgang Kuebler, a scientist at St. Michael's Hospital. "But we've found not only do they stop pumping fluid out as they're supposed to do, they've gotten confused and are actually pumping in the reverse direction, bringing ...

Hospital surgical volume should be considered when judging value of procedures

2013-05-06

SAN DIEGO – The volume of cases performed at an institution each year has a direct effect on the outcome of surgical procedures, and should always be considered when looking at the benefits of a technique, according to a team of researchers at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. Those conclusions will be presented May 5 at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association in San Diego. The starting point of the study was the rapid increase in the use of surgical robots to assist in radical prostatectomy, in which the entire prostate gland and some surrounding tissue ...

Genome sequencing provides unprecedented insight into causes of pneumococcal disease

2013-05-06

Boston, MA — A new study led by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the UK has, for the first time, used genome sequencing technology to track the changes in a bacterial population following the introduction of a vaccine. The study follows how the population of pneumococcal bacteria changed following the introduction of the 'Prevnar' conjugate polysaccharide vaccine, which substantially reduced rates of pneumococcal disease across the U.S. The work demonstrates that the technology could be used in the future ...

Media advisory: Brain cell injections may quiet epileptic seizures

2013-05-06

More than two million people in the United States suffer from epilepsies, a group of neurological disorders caused by abnormal nerve cell firing in the brain which often produce debilitating seizures. Although anti-epileptic drugs and other therapies reduce seizures in about two-thirds of patients, the remaining one-third do not respond to any form of therapy and those who take drugs can experience harmful side effects. NIH funded researchers at the University of California at San Francisco used a mouse model of epilepsy to show that transplanting new born inhibitory nerve ...

Divide and define: Clues to understanding how stem cells produce different kinds of cells

2013-05-06

ANN ARBOR—The human body contains trillions of cells, all derived from a single cell, or zygote, made by the fusion of an egg and a sperm. That single cell contains all the genetic information needed to develop into a human, and passes identical copies of that information to each new cell as it divides into the many diverse types of cells that make up a complex organism like a human being. If each cell is genetically identical, however, how does it grow to be a skin, blood, nerve, bone or other type of cell? How do stem cells read the same genetic code but divide into ...

Scientists alarmed by rapid spread of Brown Streak Disease in cassava

2013-05-06

BELLAGIO, ITALY (6 MAY 2013)— Cassava experts are reporting new outbreaks and the increased spread of Cassava Brown Streak Disease or CBSD, warning that the rapidly proliferating plant virus could cause a 50 percent drop in production of a crop that provides a significant source of food and income for 300 million Africans. The "pandemic" of CBSD now underway is particularly worrisome because agriculture experts have been looking to the otherwise resilient cassava plant—which is also used to produce starch, flour, biofuel and even beer—as the perfect crop for helping to ...

A new cost-effective genome assembly process

2013-05-06

The U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) is among the world leaders in sequencing the genomes of microbes, focusing on their potential applications in the fields of bioenergy and environment. As a national user facility, the DOE JGI is also focused on developing tools that more cost-effectively enable the assembly and analysis of the sequence that it, as well as other genome centers, generates. Despite tremendous advances in cost reduction and throughput of DNA sequencing, significant challenges remain in the process of efficiently reconstructing ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Big-data longevity specialist boosts HonorHealth Research Institute’s efforts to help patients lead longer, more productive lives

NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center earns recognition as a mitral valve repair reference center from the Mitral Foundation for third consecutive year

PSMA PET/CT prior to salvage radiotherapy improves overall survival for prostate cancer patients: Real-world data from an entire country

Binge gaming was associated with depression, anxiety, and poor sleep, with boys more likely to report binge gaming than girls, in Hong Kong survey of 2,592 children and adolescents

North American monarch butterflies use magnetic fields to migrate to and from their overwintering sites - using cold temperatures to tune how they use magnetic fields - per experimental study, which m

Specially adapted drones successfully use a "tap and go" approach to apply monitoring tags to whales, speeding up the process and avoiding human interference

Analyzing the micromovements of recovering alcoholics in response to stimuli, along with their reaction times, might help predict if they will relapse following treatment