The myth of "Swedish suicide"
Posted: January 29th, 2005 | 4 Comments »Via the Edinburgh University Library on Scandinavia: Swedish suicide rates:
A table of Suicide rates compiled by the World Health Organisation, Geneva, 2003, shows that while other Nordic and Baltic countries do show high rates of male suicide (e.g Lithuania, Estonia and Finland), Sweden does not exhibit an unusually high rate. Indeed France, New Zealand, Australia and Germany each show higher rates than Sweden. The Swedish rate is slightly higher than Canada and the USA perhaps but not the highest in the world. The myth of Swedish suicide” has its roots in the late-1950s when the American President Dwight D. Eisenhower referred to it in a speech which had been based on an inaccurate briefing. The President had tried to paint a negative picture of Sweden, a nation which – with its cradle-to-grave socialism – had set itself on a post-war neutral stance outside the then embryonic-NATO and American influence. Ever since many people have accepted the picture as fact and perpetuate the myth.
[...] First Impressions of Stockholm First impression was of course the weather, which was damp and cold, and the darkess, in December it gets dark at 3.00 pm. I’ve heard that there’s a high suicide rate in Sweden because they don’t get enough light, however, a bit of googling shows this to be a myth. [...]
Sweden is the most boring country in the world. Don’t go there! You will kill yourself
I have read this in the Local. http://www.thelocal.se/27034/20100604/ Published: 4 Jun 10 08:24 CET. Are you the same author?
Can anyone provide an exact reference for this statement? When was it? What where its exact words?
Of course, one can note the degree of stupidity that goes into this. How can suicide statistics in the 2000s provide an argument for 1950s?
If you check official Swedish statistics from the 1950s, you will find that Sweden was among a group of five countries with the highest suicide rates. All protestant – nordic – germanic countries.
The general image of Swedish suicide is also probably from the movies of Ingemar Bergman, and has had a concomitant in Swedish literature and public debate since at least the beginning of the 20th century.
Another often mentioned example is that Swedish 20th century authors and poets have an unusually high frequency of suicide.
You can also read travel accounts, such as Kathleen Noths “A Clean Well-lighted place” or the scientific study of Herbet Hendin (“Suicide and Scandinavia”). Hendin looked for reasons for suicide.
By the way, suicide statistics should be compared with the administration of antidepressants. Why is that often forgotten?