A dramatic rise in suicides in the UK in 2011 prompted the government’s new Suicide Prevention Strategy, with mental health campaigners emphasising the need to confront the stigma surrounding the subject. Yet there were also fears about ‘copycat suicides’ after a spate of incidents in Bridgend and Belfast, and there have been campaigns to censor websites that offer advice and encouragement on suicide. So is there something to be said for not talking openly about the issue?

For some, suicide is the irrational act of an unsound mind requiring medical intervention, but for others it can be a moral decision made by rational individuals, troubled or otherwise. Either way, does emphasising the role of external pressures (such as recession-fuelled hardship or bullying and harassment) risk undermining the individual’s responsibility for the act itself? Or is it possible to understand and explain suicide without condoning or even, however inadvertently, encouraging it? Given its social effects, can it even be understood as a genuinely private act? Should the stigma surrounding suicide be maintained in the interests of all concerned?