Venting Reductionist attitudes towards CTB

[TAW122]

Something that is commonly seen in mainstream society with regards to those who have completed CTB (meaning that they are successful in their attempt) is the reductionist kind of attitude towards the 'act' itself. What do I mean by reductionist in this case? I'm referring to how people attribute the one (or few) cause(s) of a person CTB'ing and then reducing their cause to those reasons or so. It could be a form of gatekeeping as well, but more importantly, the issue of that is downplaying the causes for an individual or said person to go through with CTB rather than accepting and respecting their decision.

To elaborate on this, it oversimplifies the act of CTB and writes off the person as insignificant, though of course, to the deceased (the person who CTB'd), it is irrelevant to them as they are no longer sentient. However, societally, the attitude makes a person's problems seem trivial or attributing their problems to things that are always solvable, even if they are not necessarily 'solvable'. In the end, while it is ultimately the person's decision to CTB or not, the reductionist attitude towards CTB does nobody any favors because it downplays the person's suffering as 'X has CTB'd because of ABC reasons or whatever', rather than addressing those issues, even in the aftermath of CTB. It is also really simplistic in the fact that it trivializes whatever struggle the person is going through and said person who CTB'd really deserves to have more respect and dignity, which is one of the cornerstones if the pro-choice stance.

An example of scenario of this is where there is a person named 'E'. Suppose E ended up taking their own life, and all the reasons, events, and everything that culminated into the one final act of CTB, is then reduced to nothing more than just a brief blurb by the survivors. While it is true that in such a scenario, 'E' is no longer suffering, but the fact that the survivors' attitudes towards E aftermath isn't good overall for the pro-choice stance, especially when it treats E's reasons and events leading up to it to one singular reason, event, or action. Of course, overall, despite this being an simplified example (as there are many other factors too and CTB itself can be complex too), the main point this short thread is driving home is the 'reductive' attitude towards the act of CTB and how it's detrimental towards the act itself. This is especially true if one wishes to see CTB as a valid and dignified decision, rather than one that is downplayed or reduced towards one singular action or event.

 

[Michelstaedter]

As Camus said, I believe that CTB is one of the most important philosophical problems that should be seriously and openly debated in society, since it is only looked at superficially, with figures, with prevention methods (which in the end do not help much, because they continue to increase) and society in general seems indifferent to this fact, as if it were something that has nothing to do with oneself, when in a certain way it is the responsibility of all as social beings.
People tend to see everything in a simplistic and/or reductionist way because it's easier for them to approach it that way. To a certain extent, I think it's more a matter of human thought than a deliberate choice to see things that way. For example, when I read a news story about a case of CTB (Critical Traumatism), I try to remember that there were many reasons and that the person is no longer suffering, whatever the reason. It's sad to think about the suffering that led to it, and the pain for the family will be equivalent to the pain the person suffered in life. However loved that person was, they carried a burden that wasn't simple or impossible to resolve.

P.S. It's curious that when I translated your text, I sometimes detected the acronym "CTB" as suicide. I noticed this because at one point it referred to it as "abortion," and when I reread your text in English, I realized it was already translating CTB, which is quite remarkable regarding Google Translate...