Abstract
The increasing number of suicides in 'civilised' Europe during the last decades of the nineteenth century attracted the attention on many precarious social scientists: Masaryk, Morselli, Durkheim. It was a hot issue in the Netherlands as well. Was suicide permitted? Has the individual the right to commit suicide? Always? Never? Did mitigating circumstances exist? Was one allowed to speak about suicide, or was silence the norm? The chapter analyses the opinions of socialists, liberals, Roman-Catholics and (orthodox) Portestants in response to a case-study: the suicide of the feminist-socialist author Cornélie Huygens in 1902. For Christians suicide was a taboo, an immoral act. In the more secularized 'pillars'of liberalism and socialism suicide was more or less accepted - the individual was the master of his/her own life.
| Translated title of the contribution | Suicide in the Netherlands around 1900: a contested taboo |
|---|---|
| Original language | Dutch |
| Title of host publication | Onnoemelijke dingen |
| Subtitle of host publication | Over taboe en verbod in het fin de siècle |
| Editors | Anne van Buul, Ben de Pater, Tom Sintobin, Hans Vandevoorde |
| Place of Publication | Hilversum |
| Publisher | Uitgeverij Verloren |
| Pages | 113-127 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Volume | Rythmus. Jaarboek voor de studie van het fin de siècle |
| Edition | 3 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978 90 8704 474 9 |
| Publication status | Published - 30 Sept 2014 |