okay i hope this doesnt come across as a bad faith question because im genuinely curious, and as a person who still deals with suicidal ideation, whats the problem with "preventionism"? its just not something ive ever put much thought into, or a discussion ive ever seen before. thank you!
i appreciate the question! as someone who has been chronically suicidal since childhood, i consider my suicidality to be part of my identity as a disabled/neurodivergent person. not everyone who is suicidal is disabled or considers it part of a disability, but for me that is the case.
preventionist framework views suicidality as a problem to be cured. medical models of suicidality view it as a medical emergency that requires immediate intervention (a whole other can of worms, as the “intervention” more often than not prioritizes compliance and order rather than actually helping someone suffer less). social models of suicidality view it as a gauge in which our society is succeeding or failing - if there are people in this world who want to die, surely there is something wrong with how the world operates. therefore, if we fix the problems with our society, there will no longer be people who want to die.
with both the medical and social models, the end goal is to eliminate suicidality, not honor that suicidal ideation can simply be a part of someone’s lived experience. this is problematic when we consider the long history of attempts to eliminate disability as a whole rather than accommodate and include disabled persons.
in addition, a lot of preventionist scripts on even a one-to-one conversational level aim to shut down the suicidal person instead of really listen to them. i go more in depth about this in this post, but there are a few common types of ways people respond to hearing a loved one is suicidal:
- decentering (e.g. “i / your family / your friends / etc. would be devastated if you died”)
- moral arguments (e.g. “suicide is selfish”)
- guilt trips, even if they’re unintentional (e.g. “who will take care of your pets if you die?”)
- deferring to someone perceived as more equipped (e.g. “are you seeing a therapist about this?”)
- involuntary hospitalization (e.g. calling or threatening to call 911)
a world without obligatory preventionism would allow suicidal people to be able to candidly speak about their lived experience without the fear of getting invalidated at best or placed under arrest with no due process at worst.
that’s all i will say for now to avoid making this post even longer than it already is, but i’m happy to talk more about this if you have further questions!