Does Suicide Go Against Our Most Basic instinct SELF-PRESERVATION?

[The.End]

Does Suicide go against self-preservation? And if so, does that make us somehow defective human beings for wanting to kill ourselves?

The definition of self-preservation is: the protection of oneself from harm or death, especially regarded as a basic instinct in human beings and animals.

 

[Itsalmosttime]

Yes, of course. But making a life choice doesn't necessarily make you defective.

 

[Elias]

Of course it goes against our deepest and primal instincts to survive. About your question, it depends through which lense you're defining "defective":

As a biological machine made to carry out genes as far as possible and spread them through offsprings? Yeah I'd say that kind of machine would be defective if it tried to shutdown itself.
As an individual consciousness with agency that can choose how and when it will cease its existence if it becomes too painful/unbearable or simply because it thinks it's "time to go"? Then in my opinion it is a choice that sets you free.
As part of a society that requires its citizen to be alive and productive? Yeah, we're back at the defective square.

It all depends.

 

[Gorgon]

Not nessisarlly. Which is why people are suicidal. Your instinct isnt to stay alive it's to not feel bad feelings. Sooo if that part of you is left with two options bad feelings or die itll chose to protect you from the bad feelings rather than death

 

[inthespines]

What if you think of it the other way around? Maybe we aren't defective for wanting to end ourselves, but maybe we want to end ourselves because we are defective. I liked Elias' way of comparing us to a machine. When something goes wrong in the system, and it gets corrupt, we are aimed for self termination, to secure that it doesn't get passed on.

 

[BlessedOffal]

One summer, I helped put down a sheep that had left the herd and gone rogue. She had jumped from a cliff and was standing on a rock by the shore, still alive. She had an udder infection causing her severe pain. I don't know much about sheep. But the farmer said her behavior was not unheard of.

I don't know what I intended to say with this story, but it feels kind of relevant. Like maybe we're not alone. Living every day in pain, be it physical, mental, or both, is incredibly harmful. I could see death as a reasonable action for self-preservation.

 

[Deleted member 1465]

Yes. That's why it's so hard. We are programmed to survive, to procreate then to care for our children until they are old enough to procreate.

 

[Dawn0071111]

What if you think of it the other way around? Maybe we aren't defective for wanting to end ourselves, but maybe we want to end ourselves because we are defective. I liked Elias' way of comparing us to a machine. When something goes wrong in the system, and it gets corrupt, we are aimed for self termination, to secure that it doesn't get passed on.

I agree with this. I think that when we percieve we are defective, we can circumvent SI, and self terminate. If we are truly defective how can it be good for us or anyone else to stick around?

 

[Deleted member 1465]

I agree with this. I think that when we percieve we are defective, we can circumvent SI, and self terminate. If we are truly defective how can it be good for us or anyone else to stick around?

It's arguably not. We still tend to have overwhelming SI though whatever we think we want. Nature cares not.

 

[Sweet517]

I think self preservation has a lot to do with why I have not attempted yet. I can't speak for all humans in general but i know I want to live but just not in the situation I am in — which seems unlikely to change

 

[woxihuanni]

Who cares? It's not like I'll get marks knocked off for being defective once I'm dead. Point is, nothing will happen anymore once I'm dead.

 

[MeltingHeart]

Does Suicide go against self-preservation? And if so, does that make us somehow defective human beings for wanting to kill ourselves?

The definition of self-preservation is: the protection of oneself from harm or death, especially regarded as a basic instinct in human beings and animals.

Well I got told my depression is not 'clinical' as in not a chemical imbalance in the brain, I dont have a mental illness as such, I was told (by a psychiatrist) my severe depression is what you could call 'situational'; in that it has come about due to all the circumstances and things that have happened in my life- so in that sense it is not that I am (or at least WAS) defective but rather that all that has happened to me has led me to this point of despair. This is why medication does not help me-because it doesnt change anything it doesnt change my story and the facts of my life

 

[Blackjack]

As it relates to Survival Instinct (SI), absofuckinglutely YES!