The 26 types of suicide (according to different criteria).

The classification of the different ways of ending one's life according to forensic psychology.

Death: the end of life and of everything we know, the moment when we cease to be who and how we are.The moment when we cease to be who and how we are. Most people do not wish to die, the idea of death being aversive. However, many see in it a liberation or escape from suffering, or a means to achieve certain ends. Some of these people may decide to end their own lives for a variety of reasons.

But not all suicides occur in the same way, nor do they have the same characteristics or purposes. That is why we can establish the existence of different types of suicide, classifiable according to diverse criteria..

The idea of committing suicide

Suicide is understood as any act or omission voluntarily performed for the purpose of ceasing to exist, i.e. to take one's own life. for the purpose of ceasing to exist, i.e., to take one's own life.. Generally the person who decides to commit suicide tends to be going through a period of deep vital suffering in different important aspects of his life, unable to cope and being in a state of despair in which the only way out they can see is death.

The experience of a deep trauma, the diagnosis of an incurable disease, the harassment of other people or the desperation and feeling of total lack of control over one's own life are some of the multiple aspects that can precipitate in some people the attempt to kill themselves. Although death is sought through this type of acts, most of the people who carry them out do not seek death itself, but rather the liberation and cessation of suffering. the liberation and the cessation of the suffering that something causes them..

At an organic level, suicidal behavior is usually related to a low level of serotonin in the nervous system.. There are important risk factors such as the presence of psychopathology (bipolar disorder, followed by addictions, depression, schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder are some of the most linked to suicide attempts), gender (although ideation is more frequent in women, men tend to carry out the suicidal act in a greater proportion of cases) and age, impulsivity, impulsivity and suicidality, men tend to carry out the suicidal act in a higher proportion of cases) and age, impulsivity and desperation, the presence or knowledge of other suicides in the close environment or the existence of persistent stressors that cannot be confronted due to the lack of sufficient resources.

In addition, there are different types of suicide, which can be classified according to various criteria. The following are some of the main ones.

Types of suicide according to motivation

One of the main aspects to take into account when evaluating a suicidal act is the motive that has driven the person to cause his or her own death. In this aspect we can find a large number of types of suicide, some of the main ones being the following.

1. Suicide call for attention or cry for help

Some people resort to the suicide attempt as a mechanism to call the attention to a specific fact or to ask for help in the face of events they are unable to control.. It can have manipulative purposes and usually the death itself is not wanted unless the problem situation does not change.

2. With the purpose of death

The aim of this type of suicide is to achieve one's own death. It is usually carefully and meticulously planned..

3. As an escape

Most suicides have as their real objective the cessation of suffering and not death itself. Death is seen as the only alternative to the suffering caused by a specific element of reality (e.g. harassment or debts), which is why the subject decides to dispose of his or her own life. Generally it is done impulsively and without much prior planning..

4. Finalist

This type of suicide is usually aimed at achieving a specific goal other than death or escape. It tends not to seek one's own death, but to feign or feigning or pretending to seek death in order to achieve some kind of benefit. Examples of this are the aforementioned cry for help or revenge, although it can also pursue economic benefits such as the fact that others collect life insurance.

5. Revenge suicide

Revenge suicide or paranoid type is a type of suicide which is carried out with the purpose of causing harm to other people, in order to make feel guilt and/or suffering to someone concrete.

6. Of balance

It is considered as such the suicide carried out by people who, in absence of psychopathology and after a prolonged period of time trying to confront a conflictive and painful situation, decide after making a balance that to continue living does not suppose any type of gain neither for themselves nor for the environment. It is usually observed in cases of the elderly and people with serious limitations.

Types of suicide according to modality or method

People who choose to kill themselves use different means to do so, depending on the specific intentionality of their action, their need to have control over the situation, the level of suffering they want to endure or simply the availability of specific means. If we classify suicides and suicide attempts by the method used, we can find different types.

7. Soft

These are forms of suicide which in principle do not cause obvious trauma and tend to cause numbness and little tend to cause numbness and little pain. One of the main forms of suicide by soft methods is the ingestion of massive amounts of drugs, such as barbiturates. The person usually plays a more passive role in his or her own death, waiting for the effects of their action.

Also They also involve a greater likelihood of repentance and salvation.and in many cases the effects can be reversed before they cause death.

8. Hard

Within this classification are incorporated methods involving greater brutality, such as suicide by use of weaponssuch as suicide by use of weapons (whether bladed or firearms), electrocution, throwing oneself into a void, or hanging. They tend to involve a greater likelihood of death than soft forms and involve a certain brutality.

Compared to soft forms of suicide, they are much more likely to cause some suffering. They also tend to be methods that involve direct action by the individual in bringing about his or her own death.

9. Strange

This type of suicide usually causes a high level of suffering before death occurs, involving a certain cruelty towards oneself. They are usually carried out in situations of psychopathology, especially psychotic.especially psychotic. Examples would be the ingestion of corrosive or sharp substances, self-drowning or self-cannibalistic practices.

10. Masked

These are deaths that are self-induced in such a way that they can be mistaken for natural deaths or homicides. can be confused with natural deaths or homicides. They usually pursue a specific intentionality, such as the collection of life insurance from relatives or to blame someone for one's own death.

According to the level of regulation and social integration

One of the classifications made after several studies is the one carried out by Durkheim, who considered suicide as an act fundamentally caused by social elements. In this sense there are four possible classifications, related to the level of integration of the individual in society or the regulation of this one on the life of the people.

11. Selfish suicide

This is understood as the type of suicide that occurs when the individual's social ties are weak and the individual does not feel integrated into society. He/she is not able to feel satisfied due to the lack of fulfillment as a social being. He/she feels overwhelmed, incapable and alone.

12. Altruistic

This is the self-inflicted death that is produced by an excess of group integration, seeing one's own death as a sacrifice made for the benefit of the group. The group is valued more than the individual..

13. Anomic

Anomic suicide is suicide carried out by people who have insufficient social regulation. The changing and unstable society means that there are no referents, modifying the values of the individual and may cause a loss of identity. and may cause a loss of identity..

14. Fatalist

In contrast to the former, fatalistic suicide is seen as that carried out by individuals subject to excessive social control and regulation, feeling oppression and helplessness and powerlessness, which may lead them to seek death as an escape from such a situation.

According to the presence of prior planning

Self-injury can also be classified according to whether it has been previously planned or not.

15. Accidental suicide

This is the type of suicide that occurs by accident. The subject did not really want to die, but his action generates a situation that ends his life.

16. Reflexive, intentional or premeditated

Premeditated suicide is one in which the person who commits it has planned in advance the manner, time and place of death. In some cases in which the motive is the experience of traumatic events, the suicide may be premeditated or premeditated. In some cases where the subject manifested great anxiety, a sudden state of calm and serenity can be observed prior to the act, as a result of having made the decision.

17. Impulsive suicide

Impulsive suicide is that which is carried out without prior premeditation. The subject may have thought about taking his own life previously, but does not carry out this action until a moment in which he feels highly activated and desperate. he/she feels highly activated and desperate. It may occur in situations generating high anxiety, during a psychotic break or during a manic episode.

Depending on the outcome

Attempting to take one's own life may end up generating different outcomes, depending on whether the attempt is successful or unsuccessful.

18. Non-suicidal self-harm

In this case we are not dealing with a true suicide attempt. The subject self-harms for different reasons but without this action posing a real risk to his or her life or without the self-injury being intended as such. It can sometimes result in death.

19. Suicide Attempt/Attempted Suicide

A suicide attempt or attempt to commit suicide is considered to be any act voluntarily performed with the intention of achieving one's own death without the action succeeding in its objective.

20. Completed suicide

We call consummated suicide that in which the person has acted with the purpose of killing himself/herself and has achieved his objective.

21. Thwarted suicide

This is the type of suicide attempt that has been carried out with the purpose of achieving death, using methods that generally cause the death of the individual. However, the intervention of circumstantial and unforeseeable elements, such as the appearance of other people, the rapid action of the medical services, poor planning or an inaccurate use of the means chosen to achieve death have prevented the death from occurring..

Depending on the involvement of other people

Sometimes suicide involves, either voluntarily or involuntarily, more than one person. In this sense we can find the following types of suicide.

22. Collective or mass suicide

This is a type of suicide in which more than one person or an entire group chooses and agrees to bring about their own death voluntarily. The motives for this can be various, such as the escape from a terrifying factor or the conviction that such an act can bring them some type of benefit. These types of acts usually occur in the context of war situations or in sects..

23. Extended

Extended suicide is based on the idea that an individual decides to take his own life but, in addition, considers necessary or even compassionate the death of others generally linked to him. These other people have not manifested the intention of wanting to die.

The individual first kills others, who are usually close relatives such as children, partner or family, and then takes his or her own life. This type of situation usually occurs in family environments in which the person who wants to commit suicide considers that those he or she leaves behind will suffer greatly or will not be able to survive without him or her.

Assisted suicide or euthanasia

Euthanasia or assisted suicide involves the termination of a person's life through the participation of another person or persons, participation authorized and demanded by the subject himself or by his close environment in the case of irreversible injuries that do not allow the individual to make a decision.

25. Induced suicide

This is an act of self-injury with the intention of death that has been provoked or facilitated due to the coercion or suggestion that other people have provoked in the individual who the individual who is committing suicide. The subject may be threatened or forced to kill himself or herself, or it may be actively facilitated that he or she has a death wish.

26. False suicide

This is not a true case of suicide. It is usually a homicide or murder that has been carried out in such a way that it appears that the subject in question has killed himself. it appears that the subject in question has taken his or her own life..

Bibliographical references:

• Capponi, R. (2000). Psychopathology and Psychiatric Semiology. Edt. Universitaria: Santiago.

• Durkheim, E. (2005). Suicide: A study in Sociology (2nd ed). Taylor and Francis Hoboken.