Abstract
This chapter focuses on the philosophical importance of Jean Améry’s essay collection On Suicide. Améry defends suicide as an act of freedom. Freely choosing to commit suicide is an example of the uniquely human ability to act spontaneously and to reject the inertia of the logic of life. I argue that this represents the conclusion of Améry’s philosophical system. Améry’s defense of suicide is also his ultimate challenge to norms that coerce well-being, the logic of the everyday, and the natural progression of history. However, this challenge is performed within a system that is firmly grounded in Enlightenment notions of autonomy and human freedom. Consequently, On Suicide sheds light on the tensions between Améry’s defense of progress, autonomy, and humanism and his rejection of compulsory healing and flourishing.
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Notes
- 1.
This term is somewhat contentious. Améry had a fraught relationship with pessimism, hope, and historicity. I will examine how there is a tension between these aspects of Améry’s writings in the second half of this chapter. I will also examine how these tensions can be best understood in light of Améry’s conclusions about suicide.
- 2.
Lt. Gustl does not ultimately commit suicide as he is released from his obligation and fears by the death of the baker. Relieved, Gustl regains his sense of dignity and is confident he will succeed in his afternoon duel. However, Améry continues to associate Gustl’s former parasuicidal behavior with the loss of his sense of dignity and autonomy after compromising his military duties. As such, for most of the novel he represents an example of a parasuicidal person “before the leap” when he professes his decision to kill himself.
- 3.
The coming of death is also natural for Améry. I will examine these tensions further in my subsequent section on tensions and dualities within suicide.
- 4.
Améry was highly critical of Eichmann in Jerusalem and what he saw as Arendt’s condoning of oppressive forgiveness. However, there remain parallels between their conceptions of freedom and spontaneity.
- 5.
This lament was both practical and psychological. For Levi resistance to the dehumanization of the camps through rituals such as cleaning oneself, friendship, and the potential for spontaneous action was what was crushed before a person was reduced to the status of the walking dead Mussalman.
- 6.
Améry controversially compares the destigmitization of suicide with the decriminalization of homosexuality.
- 7.
The linguistic shift occurred considerably earlier in English. The term “self-murder” was commonly used in the sixteenth century but was mostly replaced by the less value laden “suicide” by 1650 (Bahr 2013).
- 8.
Améry distinguishes himself from his contemporary anti-psychiatrists. He does not think madness represents a social construct and is dismissive of attempts to valorize irrationality.
- 9.
Améry does not directly reference Hume’s Of Suicide throughout his On Suicide. However, the English title is a direct reference to the prior work. Similarly, given Améry speaks at length of his study of his reading of the British empiricists it is highly likely he was familiar with the work.
References
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Campbell, G. (2019). Jean Améry: Suicide, the Refusal to Heal, and Humanistic Freedom. In: Ataria, Y., Kravitz, A., Pitcovski, E. (eds) Jean Améry. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28095-6_13
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