From Mad in Norway: Today, September 10, marks the World Day for Suicide Prevention Work. This year’s slogans are ‘start the conversation’ and ‘change the narrative’. Despite the fact that such visions are often loose blows in the air, in my view the slogan is fruitful. Because what kind of possibilities can be put into play if we choose to pursue it further?Apart from the empty platitudes and symbolic politics that annual mental health celebrations are characterized by, we as a society should, to a greater extent, learn to respect people’s death wishes and the possibility of self-death. The use of the word respect is not accidental: etymologically speaking, the word is derived from the Latin re-spectare , which directly translated into Norwegian means to see something again . By respect , I mean an openness and a courage to choose to look at this human, all-too-human possibility again. In a way, it can detach us from both the quagmire of shame and illness.
Read the full article here and the English translation here.Ā
