SUICIDE AND DEGENERACY 253 



APPENDIX I 



It may be objected that suicide, even if it be not the act of an insane mind, 

 is nevertheless the expression of a weak and neuropathic temperament, 

 and that consequently the self-destruction of these individuals is beneficial 

 to society, in that it eliminates weak and worthless elements. To this we 

 would reply: (1) The assumption that neurasthenia is synonymous with 

 degeneracy, so that we may identify all the neuropathic units in society 

 with the worthless elements, is entirely arbitrary. Neurasthenia is to-day 

 a very common complaint, and its spread is due almost exclusively to the 

 intensity of the struggle for existence, to the Hasten, Drdngen, und Jagen 

 brought about by the evolution of the capitalist system of production. 

 Most persons are affected in a greater or lesser degree by neurasthenia, which 

 is decidedly, as the French say, the mal du siede. Are we, then, to say 

 that all those affected by neurasthenia are worthless elements of society ? 

 Such a generalisation appears the more unjustified when we remember the 

 connection between neurasthenia and genius. Mahomet was certainly a 

 neuropathic person, and it is highly probable that he suffered from epilepsy. 

 Napoleon was certainly a sufferer from a disordered nervous system ; 

 and how many others could be named, whose fame has penetrated to the 

 four ends of Europe, and who were sufferers from hereditary neurasthenia ? 

 And yet one can hardly maintain that Mahomet, the founder of a religion 

 which, with Buddhism and Christianity, counts the greatest number of 

 adherents to-day, was a worthless member of society, or that the world 

 would not be the poorer if Mahomet had never existed. Would not 

 society be the poorer if the genius of Napoleon had not shown humanity 

 what human force can achieve, to what heights of glory man can raise him- 

 self ? Supposing the persons who commit suicide to be of neuropathic 

 temperament, does it foUow that their loss is of no account to society ? 

 If they are failittes, cannot their failure be attributable to circumstances 

 external to their personality ? The financier who kills himself as the result 

 of vmf ortunate speculation may be a man of genius, and his failure may be 

 due to the combination of hostile forces ; and the suicides attributable in 

 the first instance to speculation, are most certainly attributable, in the last 

 instance, to an economic system which engenders an unhealthy love of 

 money for its own sake ; and which glorifies the material gain at the expense 

 of the spiritual. The part played by economic conditions in determining 

 the rate of suicide is a most important one ; not only the suicide of finan- 

 ciers, but the great majority of aU suicides, can be traced, in the last resort, 

 to the amoraUsm produced by the too exclusive supremacy of the economic 

 factor in our Western society to-day. (2) That neurasthenia implies 

 that those who suffer from it are degenerate, consequently inferior, members 

 of society — the word " degenerate " must here be taken in its usual sense, 

 the individuals whom Professor Magnan has characterised as degeneres 

 supirieurs being frequently among the most valuable assets of humanity — 

 is sufficiently refuted by the figures we have given concerning suicide in 

 the reUgious communities, concerning the influence of domestic life on 

 suicide, and concerning the influence of political crises on suicide. Can it 



