THE ROOTS OF SUICIDE

Sir, - I agree with some of Sister Stanislaus Kennedy's views on suicide (Opinion, May 30th May), but her willingness to lay blame at the door of modern Irish society is simplistic.

She says almost nothing about the make-up of the individual in terms of their emotional, psychological or even physiological predisposition towards isolation, depression and despair.

The society that she describes ("success-ridden", a strange term indeed) has not been with us for that long. Clearly the damage was done for many people long before we acquired the values that so disgust Sister Stanislaus. She says nothing about the long-term effects on people who have grown up from childhood in environments that are chaotic, non-affirming or brutal. She gives no weighting to the many young people who are never helped within the family to develop the skills to deal with the challenges they will face in life, regardless of whatever societal values prevail at the time.

With these skills, one can engage in a society which is materialistic and individualistic without necessarily identifying with those values. Without these skills, many young people are powerless to develop self-esteem and retreat into a personal world of isolation, fear and self-loathing, which, if left untreated, may result in the tragedy of suicide.

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Blaming society is a cop-out that will do nothing to reverse the worrying trend. - Yours, etc.,

PETER BROWN,

Stoneybatter,

Dublin 7.