First Nations Suicides and the Loss of Meaning
I have worked in mental health and research since 2009 and I feel compelled to share a few thoughts on the subject. I want to begin by saying that I do not believe the current system works because it is mainly geared towards medication, which
doesn't seek to explore the reasons and/or causes of the problem
does not provide a cure
makes people dependent on external help
does not provide ways to self-empower individuals.
But this is also related to the way our society now functions—wanting a quick fix instead of making the effort it takes to truly acquire what we desire. Why is that? What is more worth our effort than our own well being?
While I believe it's unfortunate people reach the conclusion that suicide is the only option, I also believe that it [suicide] shouldn't be a crime. But with that said, I think it's extremely important to evaluate why so many people come to this conclusion about their own lives. At its core, suicide represents a crisis of meaning—the psyche's demand for transformation tragically misinterpreted as a call to literal death.
Carl Jung writes about where 'modern man' finds himself now in this material world that completely represses our humanity, and how the aspects of our shadow self [the dark parts of our personality that are hidden/lie within our subconscious] manifest themselves and completely overwhelm our consciousness. I believe this is most difficult to deal with in adolescence and early adulthood because we lack the tools to properly make sense of the world around us and to embrace our own individuality during that period.
This is especially difficult for young males who have literally been programmed to repress their feelings because it's not 'manly,' which is a result of toxic masculinity that completely rejects feminine traits despite them being essential to our existence in these human bodies.
The reason why suicide is so high amongst First Nations is because their identity has been repressed—if not stripped away completely from them—creating a lack within their understanding of the world. Jung talks about the consequences of the removal of spirituality in his book Man and His Symbols, stating:
Modern man does not understand how much his 'rationalism' (which has destroyed his capacity to respond to numinous symbols and ideas) has put him at the mercy of his psyche 'underworld.' He has freed himself from 'superstition' (or so he believes) but in the process he has lost spiritual values to a positively dangerous degree.' His moral and spiritual tradition has disintegrated, and he is now paying the price for this break-up in world-wide disorientation and dissociation.
This is evident in the way the Western world has also experienced difficulty in leading a healthy lifestyle despite its commodities, due to emotional growth and any connection to the planet—which is literally a part of us—severely lacking. The current situation of the environment mirrors our mental health, which statistics show is becoming worse (e.g. more people than ever are now on medications and/or they self-medicate).
The society we have created does not support the expression of our humanity, for it removes all meaning from our experience and it essentially requires that we completely abolish the individual self. This has become worse with the breakdown of the family unit and family ties, leaving individuals isolated in the name of 'independence'—a condition that hardly serves self-actualization. We have traded real growth for superficial goals and imagery, and the representation of ourselves on social media is proof of this.
Jung's book The Undiscovered Self states:
Under the influence of scientific assumptions, not only the psyche but the individual man and, indeed, all individual events whatsoever suffer a leveling down and a process of blurring that distorts the picture of reality into a conceptual average. We ought not to underestimate the psychological effect of the statistical world picture: it displaces the individual in favor of anonymous units that pile up into mass formations. Science supplies us with, instead of the concrete individual, the names of organizations and, at the highest point, the abstract idea of the State as the principle of political reality. The moral responsibility of the individual is then inevitably replaced by the policy of the State (raison d'état). Instead of moral and mental differentiation of the individual, you have public welfare and the raising of the living standard. The goal and meaning of individual life (which is the only real life) no longer lie in individual development but in the policy of the State, which is thrust upon the individual from outside and consists in the execution of an abstract idea which ultimately tends to attract all life to itself. The individual is increasingly deprived of the moral decision as to how he should live his own life, and instead is ruled, fed, clothed and educated as a social unit, accommodated in the appropriate housing unit, and amused in accordance with the standards that give pleasure and satisfaction to the masses."
I would say that there are many ways the Canadian government can help not only First Nations, but also the general populace: it begins with focusing more on our individual needs, promoting self-development and genuine growth that doesn't revolve around molding us to fit into a box that only serves its economic system (which favours the wealthy at the expense of 99.99% of the population), promoting the arts—creative expression has been proven to help with depression, to accommodate people who don't fit the system and actually encourage their individuality, and, in general, to be more flexible with the way it treats humans because we, by nature, are flexible beings.
Our mental health needs a holistic approach, not a prescription.
The consequences of modernity on the human psyche are vast and well-documented. I highly recommend reading the works of Carl Jung and R. D. Laing, both of whom have had a major impact in my understanding of my own Self and my experiences, which has had an incredible effect in how I deal with my emotions, especially anxieties.
