Famous Suicides and What-Ifs ...

The Lost Soul Companion: A Book of Comfort and Constructive Advice for Black Sheep, Square Pegs, Struggling Artists, and Other Free Spirits
by Susan M. Brackney

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Vincent and Theo Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh broke his younger brother's heart. Over the years, Theo van Gogh supported Vincent financially and emotionally despite his own frailties and commitments. He adored Vincent and did everything in his power to further his brother's art and his independence. Vincent had a long history of madness and, despite his brother's efforts, he shot himself in the chest on July 27, 1890. He died two days later. Just three months after Vincent's suicide, Theo, beside himself with grief, completely broke down. On January 25, 1891, he died in an asylum. According to Jan Hulsker's book Vincent and Theo van Gogh: A Dual Biography, "In a lecture published by the Krsller-Müller Foundation in 1954, these words were devoted to Theo's illness and death: 'The doctor who treated him with great devotion, tried in vain to get his attention by reading to him an article ... about Vincent. The only interest he had was for the name Vincent. In the "history of illness" it says in the column "cause of disease: chronic illness, excessive exertion and sorrow."'" Vincent's selfish act had major repercussions on other lives.

Sylvia Plath

On February 11, 1963, Sylvia Plath took milk and a plate of bread upstairs to her two children, Frieda and Nicholas. Then she returned to the kitchen, sealed the window and the door, and stuck her head in the gas oven. It was the last in a succession of suicide attempts. This one worked.

It was only a month after the publication of her critically acclaimed work The Bell Jar. Despite great successes throughout her life, Sylvia was plagued with self-doubt and bouts of serious depression. Occasionally she sought treatment for these episodes. Hospitalization, electric shock therapy, and psychiatric treatment were helpful, but it's important to note that really effective antidepressant medications weren't yet available.

A. Alvarez, a friend to Sylvia, doesn't believe she actually wanted to die. Alvarez maintains that this suicide attempt was just another cry for help in a long series. It is an especially likely prospect since, as he explains in The Savage God, the au pair girl who found Sylvia's body also found a note saying "Please call Dr. — ," and giving his telephone number. He writes, "This time ... there was too much holding her to life. Above all, there were the children: she was too passionate a mother to want to lose them or them to lose her." But her crying wolf lost those children the most important person in their lives.

Virginia Woolf

On March 28, 1941, Virginia Woolf placed a large stone in her pocket and walked into the River Ouse in Sussex, England. It was widely believed that her suicide was related to her distress over World War II, but that was not the case. The true cause is revealed to her husband, Leonard, in her suicide note:

I have the feeling I shall go mad. I hear voices and cannot concentrate on my work. I have fought against it, but cannot fight any longer. You have been so perfectly good. I cannot go on and spoil your life.

Virginia Woolf's life had been riddled with illness and nervous breakdowns. Scholars believe that she feared this latest episode would be permanent. Leonard Woolf had been "perfectly good" to his wife. He cared for her during her illnesses and did his best to prevent future breakdowns, but, clearly, Virginia felt guilty for requiring so much care and attention. I imagine, however, that her husband was happy to comfort her and would have preferred that she live. Her assumption of her own lack of worth took away Leonard's ability to help her.

The list of famous suicides goes on for miles. They left loved ones behind to grieve for them and much unfinished business to do. I understand that sometimes the love of friends and family doesn't seem like enough in the face of so much pain. For me, the urge to die has been powerful, but the thought of leaving my mother and father behind to suffer such a loss keeps me hanging on by my fingernails.

These Lost Souls were hurting, but that doesn't excuse their actions - especially in light of the fact that depression and other mental disorders were somewhat treatable at the time, and now much more so. No one in the throes of despair is thinking clearly. That's why it's so important to ask someone else for help.

I wonder what could have been if they had chosen to live. What incredible works of art have we missed out on because they chose to die? Sylvia Plath would be in her sixties today. Maybe she would still be writing. There are songs we'll never get to hear, paintings we'll never see, novels we can't enjoy because their creators gave up.

Living is really hard, but death is forever. We're all going to die eventually, so what's your rush? Even if you think committing suicide will make you seem tragic and romantic and cool, you'll never know what happened anyway. Don't you want to know how your life was supposed to turn out? Wouldn't you like to see what you're made of?

Copyright © 2000 by Susan M. Brackney. Excerpted by permission of Dell, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

About the Author

Susan Brackney lives in Indiana with her rescued cockatoo, Puckitt.